The purpose of this study is to understand the lifestyles of single women in their 30's through a conducted research and analysis on lifestyle both in the realm of consciousness and in their lives. Also, it is to show what differences it makes on soc...
The purpose of this study is to understand the lifestyles of single women in their 30's through a conducted research and analysis on lifestyle both in the realm of consciousness and in their lives. Also, it is to show what differences it makes on social demographical characteristics, on their attitude toward single life and marriage, and on their life satisfaction. For the purpose a survey was conducted on 240 single women, 30 to 39 living in Seoul and its metro-politan area.
The study was undertaken in the realm of life and consciousness of lifestyle to view the lifestyles of single women in their 30's. The test consists of content, which can reflect today's society by compensating for existing test's shortcomings, and of the measurement chosen and revised from the existing researches, which can present the lifestyles of single women in their 30's in each realm. Each component is composed by applying the 5 level Likert Technique. Factor analysis, cluster analysis, chi-square test, and ANOVA were used to analyze the data and the reliability of the measurement tool was checked by Cronbach's α.
The major finding of this study were as follows :
First, their lifestyles can be classified by 5 categories : "stable and steady", "conventional and conservative", "trend-leading", "faithful to oneself", "passive and indifferent".
The "stable and steady" category is characteristic of those who are conservative in the issue of sex and are leisure-oriented. The single women who can be categorized as "conventional and conservative" are the most conservative in the issue of sex, among the 5 category, and put a great value on their religious lives. The group of single women whose lifestyles are the "trend-leading" category show high interest in social problems and attach great importance to their own distinctive individuality. The "faithful to oneself" category tend to have progressive ideas about the issue of sex and are not very interested in society while they feel very highly in self-development and other personal issues. Lastly, those who are in the "passive and indifferent" category have low interest in social phenomenon and low level of self-satisfaction.
Second, those 5 categories differ with each other on the attitude toward marriage and the choice of staying single according to their lifestyles. To the question if they voluntarily have chosen to stay single, the "trend-leading" category marked on "very positive" in responding, when the "conventional and conservative" category marked on "very negative". To the question if they involuntarily have chosen to stay single, the most positive response came from the "passive and indifferent" category as they tend to wait for the right person to get married, not that they refuse to get married. For this reason, the "passive and indifferent"category could also refer to as an involuntary and temporary group. In the question about lifestyle changes they might experience after marriage, the "conventional and conservative" category showed the highest expectations about married life.
Third, in life satisfaction according to the lifestyles of single women in their 30's, the "conventional and conservative" category showed the highest satisfaction. The category who answered with the lowest level in satisfaction was the "passive and indifferent" category. Those single women classified in the "passive and indifferent" category relatively have a negative point of view about their ego and a passive way of living and leisure time consuming, which, I think, naturally has negative impact on their life satisfaction.