1. Research Purpose
Korean society today is characterized by changes in social norms regarding women and families. Political demand from members of the society has increased. Accordingly, it is imperative to identify life-world of women and changes in family structure and develop sophisticated policies based on the data analysis. In order to respond to such social needs, Korean Women's Development Institute has decided to establish longitudinal data on women/families to assist in-depth understanding on women and families. Panel study will be held to gather information on women and families that have changed over time. Panel study is a follow-up study repeated on the same sample in certain time intervals and is a useful method for discovering trend in changes of individuals according to their life and time periods as well as effectiveness analyzing it effectively.
2. Characteristics of Korean Logitudinal Survey of Women & Family (KLoWF) and its Contents
1) Characteristics of KLoWF
Target population for the research is women between the age of 19 and 64 and husbands of these women. Target population will be decided within the range of budget and according to the situation faced when the actual research takes place in 2007. Women within the age category are original sample of the follow-up target, and a representative sample for the entire nation, which includes agricultural families, will be sampled. 2005 Population Census will be used as a sample frame and the area the information was collected from will be the location for sampling. Multi-stage stratified probability sampling method will be used for sampling target households based on areas. From the first year of the research, one-on-one interview using CAPI system will be conducted to collect initial information for key categories and additional research will be conducted in three-year interval for special topics.
2) Contents - First Year
7 panel forums, 2 project manager conferences, 3 policy workshops, visiting domestic and international organizations for data collection, 12 survey questionnaire design workshops for the research teams were held to study the following categories.
?Analyze features of panel studies - contents and research methods of women-related panels previously held in Korea
?Analyze contents, research methods, relevant research topics for women-related panel studies held in other countries
?Decide basic frame of analysis and contents structure
: Basic structure needed for panel studies including sample frame, panel establishment period, research target, follow-up principle, and research method
?Perform sampling for improved validity and design research
?Develop contents of the survey questionnaire
?Pre-evaluate CAPI research method and suggestions for panel study database establishment
3. Research Contents of KLoWF
Research area for women family panel studies is consisted of work surrounding the individual female (economic activity), family, and private life (leisure time). Questions for the questionnaire were designed to obtain information on life-world of women groups who design their life around the above three categories. Within the women groups, there are "work (economic activity) oriented group," "household work-oriented group," and "group involved with even amount of work and household work." Thoughts and behaviors differ for each group.
Three categories change into diverse patterns and become restructured depending on the stage of women's life. Thus, shift in life cycle of women is considered as one of the axes for panel studies. Life style of women is comprised of physical and contextual characteristics from their birth to senescence that are different from men. It is important to study research categories that are considered as critical periods and events throughout the life cycle of women since it is heavily influenced by the life events such as marriage, childbirth, child support, and elder care.
In addition, characteristics of individuals witnessed in these different categories and forms of life should be understood based on personal material basis and dynamic interaction between beliefs and values of the individuals. How these categories and life events influence and change the life of individuals and how these influences accumulate over generations to create a bigger change are some of the factors that can be determined from follow-up study. As mentioned above, three categories of "work, family, and private life" studied (follow-up study) for different stages of women's life cycle are the main contents of the research.
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