Several studies have focused on population aging, with a focus on the relationship between age and the main concepts of the socioemotional selectivity theory, but many do not report consistent results. Therefore, this study sought to better understand how the socioemotional selective theory informs our understanding of the elderly in Korea. More specifically, it aimed at observing how age groups differ in regards to future time perspective, social goals, and friend networks. Data were collected from 271 elderly people (M = 72.98 years old, SD = 5.63) using questionnaires. The statistical program SPSS 25.0 was used to perform descriptive statistical analyses, reliability analyses, and ANOVAs. The findings indicated that the Korean elderly participants perceived their subjective age to be younger than their chronological age. Furthermore, if they perceived their subjective age to be older than their chronological age, they were more likely to report that their network of friends was smaller than they desired. Lastly, depending on their age, the Korean elderly participants reported different priorities of the goals they wished to pursue. These results could help researchers, clinical practitioners, and policymakers to better understand the unique differences in the Korean elderly.

This study compares how mother-daughter differentiation influences solidarity and relationship satisfaction between mothers-in-law and sons-in-law. The subjects of this study were 167 mothers-in-law (mean age, 59.6 years) paired with their sons-in-law (mean age, 36.9 years). Participants were given quantitative survey questionnaires on their relationships. Descriptive statistical analyses were conducted for the social and demographic characteristics of mothers-in-law and sons-in-law. Ordinary least square multiple regression analyses were also conducted to examine the level of mother-daughter differentiation, solidarity, and relationship satisfaction between mothers-in-law and sons-in-law. The results show that a higher age of the mothers-in-law results in lower relationship satisfaction between mothers-in-law and sons-in-law. Next, an increase the level of mother-daughter differentiation (which means more balance between intimacy and detachability) results in a higher overall solidarity, affectual solidarity, giving functional solidarity, and consensual solidarity between mothers-in-law and sons-inlaw. However, there was no statistically significant difference in the receiving functional solidarity and normative solidarity between mothers-in-law and sons-in-law. Finally, the results show that a higher level of mother-daughter differentiation produces a higher relationship satisfaction between mothers-in-law and sons-in-law. The findings could provide a better understanding of inter-generational relationships in Korean family dynamics. The results also have implications for providing counseling for the development of healthy relationships between mothers-in-law and sons-in-law.

This article provides an ecological model of child support facilitation through broad efforts to maintain high rates of paternity establishment via agency–university collaboration. The study utilized administrative data (2,208 electronic records from the Bureau of Health Statistics) on voluntary paternity affidavits (VPA) rejected by the Iowa Department of Public Health. These records represented all rejected VPAs from 70 hospitals in Iowa for 6 months in 2017. Results indicated that the majority of VPAs were not accepted for minor errors (78%) such as missing information rather than incorrect information. Results also indicated variation among hospitals and hospital regions in the reasons for rejection. Outreach to hospitals targeting affidavit completion is a potential step for increasing paternity establishment.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, family members have spent more time together at home. This study introduces the concept of “family distancing”—the efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus to family members. We explore which demographic characteristics are associated with family distancing efforts and how the family distancing efforts are associated with family conflicts. Survey data were collected from adults ( N = 324, M = 37 years; SD = 10.5 years; 65.1% female) in Korea. We found that gender, education, marital status, physical health status, and number of family members who live together were significantly associated with family distancing efforts. In addition, lower compliance with the request for family distancing was significantly associated with a higher degree of negative emotions (i.e., anger), which in turn was associated with more family conflict. The findings highlight the potential importance of family distancing efforts to maintain health but also their potential to increase family conflict.

Despite the understanding that differentiation is a lifelong process crucial for psychological adaptation, there is limited knowledge regarding how parent–child differentiation in adulthood is associated with the psychological well-being of both parents and adult children. Furthermore, empirical research has yielded inconclusive results regarding whether the parental status of adult children influences the parent–child relationship. Consequently, the current study focuses on the moderating effect of adult daughters’ parental status on the association between aging mother–adult daughter differentiation and psychological well-being. The study utilized data from 167 pairs of Korean aging mothers and adult daughters to examine two main aspects: (1) the relationship between aging mother–adult daughter differentiation and psychological well-being; and (2) the moderating role of adult daughters’ parental status on the relationship between aging mother–adult daughter differentiation and psychological well-being. The findings revealed that both the differentiation of adult daughters and mothers was positively associated with their respective psychological well-being. However, no significant cross-interactional effects of aging mother–adult daughter differentiation on psychological well-being were observed. Notably, there was a positive moderating effect of the adult daughter’s parental status on the association between aging mother–adult daughter differentiation and psychological well-being for aging mothers.