한국무용이 중년여성의 주관적 웰빙과 삶의 질에 미치는 영향

Abstract

As medical progress results in prolonged human life in this 21st century, people have recently begun to take interest in how to enrich their own lives. That is, a new cultural trend named "welfare" or "well-being" is being made where people make best use of their free hours, invest in physical and mental health, and pursue qualitative values in life. At present, however, the academic circle of dancing needs theoretical aspects related with well-being. In particular, this study is needed to answer the task how Korean dance can help Korean middle-aged women enhance their quality of life physically, mentally, and socially. In addition, while most research adopted the quantitative method to know a general tendency, this study resorted to a questionnaire based on the analyzed results of in-depth interviews as a way of the qualitative method and used a multiple approach in relation to the study of leisure. In sociological aspects, too, this study of concrete factor analysis is desperately needed to account for the relations between dancing and the recent important sociocultural phenomenon of welfare. Therefore, the current research aims to reveal the effects of the leisure activities of Korean dancing on the subjective well-being and quality of life of middle-aged women. The researcher hopes to prove that the middle-aged women can effectively express their desire of social participation through Korean dance and suggest the possibility and theoretical base of leisure science. With Korean dance activities as the independent variable and subjective well-being and quality of life as dependent variables, some hypotheses were made. The subjects were 200 women in middle age learning Korean dance as of July 2007 in Seoul's department store cultural centers in Gangnam-gu, Seocho-gu, Seongbuk-gu, and Songpa-gu as well as the National Theater. 196 questionnaires were finally retrieved and used in the present research. The investigation tools in this study were the in-depth analysis results of personal interviews with 14 middle-aged women learning Korean dance as leisure activities as well as Im Yeong-heui's (2005) questionnaire about the correlations between dancing and well-being culture, complemented after a test on credibility and validity. For data processing, credibility analysis (cronbach's a-coefficient) and factor analysis were made to obtain the following findings: 1. Korean dance activities have a positive influence on the subjective well-being of middle-aged women. Subjective welfare has mental, physical, and social well-being effects. They are 7 observable variables: emotional cultivation, psychological rest, mental energy (mental); external change, internal change (physical); width of social life, sociality (social). Among these, physical change was analyzed to be the representative factor of subjective well-being. As a result, middle-aged women had the most positive effect on physical aspects through Korean dancing activities. 2. Korean dance activities also have an affirmative influence on the quality of life of middle-aged women. The quality of life has 11 observable variables: positive change of life, educational continuity, desire satisfaction (satisfaction); pride, achievement, identity (self-awareness); emotional ties, communication, allowed privacy (family cohesion); intellectual cultivation, lifestyle change (change of life). The representative factor was satisfaction with the positive change of life. In sum, the research expects the following utility and application: 1. The neglected aspects of Korean dance activities concerning the concrete factors of their influence on middle-aged women's well-being and quality of life were revealed here to provide theoretical basis of dance science and contribute to the accumulation and activation of the related experimental academics. 2. The experimental data regarding the values and roles of Korean dancing will be very valuable in the policies of social dance and consequently promote the Korean dancing activities of the women in middle age.