북한이탈주민의 남한사회 정착에 영향을 미치는 요인

Abstract

Identifying Factors Affecting the Settlement of North Korean Defectors in South KoreaThe purpose of this study was to identify important factors affecting the settlement of the increasing North Korean defectors in South Korea. Even though the settlement of North Korean defectors are affected by various factors such as individual factors, social factors, cultural factors, and so on, previous studies tended to examine only a part of those factors. Under such circumstance, the level of correlation and interdependency among the above factors cannot be throughly understood in a comprehensive manner. In order to overcome this limitation, this study analyzed and tested the correlation and interdependency among individual, social, and cultural factors comprehensively in an attempt to better understand the North Korean defectors' settlement process. In addition, this study employed multiple measures including depression and life-satisfaction in order to examine both positive and negative aspects of North Korean defectors. The analyses revealed the following two major findings. First, depression was negatively associated with self-esteem and acculturation rate. These results may indicate that personal cognitive factors such as self-esteem and acculturation are closely related with depression. Second, the presence of family member living together is significantly and positively related only with life-satisfaction..