The Role of Self-Esteem in the Relationship Between Welfare Services for Persons with Disabilities and Quality of Life: A Mixed-Methods Study Using the Korea Welfare Panel Study and In-Depth Interviews
Ahn hyochol
Advisor : Prof. Kim yongseob, Ph.D....
The Role of Self-Esteem in the Relationship Between Welfare Services for Persons with Disabilities and Quality of Life: A Mixed-Methods Study Using the Korea Welfare Panel Study and In-Depth Interviews
Ahn hyochol
Advisor : Prof. Kim yongseob, Ph.D.
Department of Social Welfare Graduate School of Chosun University
This study combined a quantitative study using the Korea Welfare Panel with in-depth interviews with people with disabilities, analysing the relationship between welfare services for the disabled and quality of life from both statistical and lived experience perspectives. While the quantitative research focused on identifying 'what' appears in the relationship between welfare services, quality of life, and self-esteem, the qualitative research focused on explaining 'why' and 'how' these relationships form in the actual lives of people with disabilities. By doing this, the study aimed to integrate the generalisability of large-scale panel data with the contextual understanding from in-depth interviews to comprehensively understand both the structural conditions and subjective experiences surrounding the quality of life of people with disabilities.
Compared to previous studies, the distinctiveness of this study is as follows. First, instead of treating welfare services as a single aggregate variable, it analyses the effects of different service types by dividing them into livelihood support, medical support, material support, and housekeeping support closely related to the daily lives of people with disabilities. Second, self-esteem is set not simply as an outcome variable or mediator, but as a psychological factor that moderates the relationship between welfare services and quality of life, explaining the differences in welfare service effects. Third, by combining quantitative analysis using Korean welfare panel data with in-depth interviews with people with disabilities, it analyses the effects of welfare services in terms of both statistical relationships and lived experiences.
In the quantitative study, we analysed data from the 19th Korean Welfare Panel Survey. The sample consisted of 1,489 people with disabilities. The independent variable, welfare services, was divided into subcategories of livelihood support, medical expense support, material support and household support. The dependent variable, quality of life, was measured through subcategories including health status, overall life satisfaction and leisure satisfaction. Regression analysis was conducted to examine the effects of welfare services and the moderating effect of self-esteem. In the qualitative study, in-depth interviews were conducted with five people with disabilities to explore how they experienced welfare services and how these experiences related to their quality of life and self-esteem.
The main findings of this study are as follows. First, the impact of welfare services on quality of life varied depending on the type of service and the sub-dimensions of life quality. Some welfare services even showed a negative association with quality of life. However, these results should not be interpreted as the services themselves lowering quality of life. Instead, these results may reflect the health vulnerabilities, economic difficulties, functional limitations, and multiple support needs of the people who require these services. Secondly, self-esteem was positively associated with quality of life. People with higher self-esteem tended to have better health, greater satisfaction with leisure activities, and higher overall life satisfaction. These results suggest that self-esteem is an important psychological resource for understanding the quality of life of people with disabilities. Thirdly, the moderating effect of self-esteem was not statistically significant. The interaction between each type of social welfare service and self-esteem did not have a meaningful impact on the sub-dimensions of quality of life. Therefore, self-esteem was not statistically confirmed as a moderating variable in the relationship between social welfare services and quality of life.
The qualitative research results provided contextual explanations for the quantitative findings. Living expense support was seen as a resource that reduced financial burdens and helped with psychological stability. Medical expense support was closely related to maintaining health and accessing treatment, but it also reflected participants' existing health vulnerabilities. Item support helped with convenience and independence in daily life, and household support helped maintain daily routines but sometimes brought feelings of dependence or psychological discomfort. Additionally, housing environment, social relationships, service accessibility, and institutional limitations appeared to be significant contextual factors affecting the relationship between welfare services and quality of life.
Based on these results, the theoretical implications of this study are as follows. First, this study is theoretically significant because it analysed the relationship between welfare services for people with disabilities and quality of life by service type, expanding on previous approaches that viewed disability services as a single support system. Second, this study is meaningful because it did not view the quality of life of people with disabilities as a single satisfaction concept but analysed it by health status, leisure satisfaction, and overall satisfaction, empirically confirming the multidimensionality of quality of life. Third, this study has theoretical significance because it reinterpreted the role of self-esteem not just as a statistical moderating variable but as a psychosocial condition for understanding the experience of using welfare services. Fourth, this study contributes theoretically by suggesting the need to comprehensively understand personal and environmental factors in research on the quality of life of people with disabilities. Fifth, this study has methodological and theoretical significance because it explained and complemented the limitations of quantitative research results with qualitative data through a mixed-method approach. Sixth, this study is also linked to the theoretical direction of modern disability welfare, focusing on a rights-based approach and discussions on community independent living.
The policy implications identified through this study are as follows. First, disability welfare services need to shift from a focus on individual benefit provision to an integrated support system based on needs. Second, policies should be designed to reflect the complex needs of elderly people with disabilities. Third, healthcare support should expand from cost reimbursement to policies ensuring actual medical accessibility. Fourth, improving housing conditions should be addressed more clearly within policies on the quality of life for people with disabilities. Fifth, policies for residential facilities for people with disabilities should be reoriented from facility-based protection towards supporting community independent living. Sixth, it is necessary to improve eligibility criteria and delivery systems to reduce institutional blind spots. Seventh, welfare service policies should be designed around the users' right to self-determination and protection of their rights.
In summary, this suggests that welfare services for people with disabilities need to go beyond simply providing material or functional support. The welfare service system should be designed in a way that respects users' dignity, autonomy, and psychological acceptance.
Although self-esteem was not statistically confirmed as a moderating factor, it is directly related to quality of life and appears to be significant in how people with disabilities perceive and interpret welfare services. Therefore, policies and practices need to integrate economic, medical, daily living, and psycho-social support to enhance the quality of life for people with disabilities.
Ten practical implications were suggested for this. First, in social work practice, the actual living needs of users should be carefully assessed before providing disability welfare services. Second, material support should move away from a one-size-fits-all approach and be implemented as personalised support based on user needs. Third, medical expense support should be practised together with support for access to healthcare. Fourth, domestic support should be provided in a way that complements the user's independent living. Fifth, in practice, forming relationships that consider self-esteem and self-determination is important. Sixth, welfare centres and community agencies should function as hubs for forming social networks for older people with disabilities. Seventh, housing environment assessment must be included in the case management process. Eighth, residential facilities for people with disabilities require a practical distinction from community agencies. Residential facilities should move away from group living management and strengthen individual support systems that respect each person's life rhythm, preferences, decision-making, privacy, relationships, and outdoor activities. Ninth, residential facilities should strengthen their practical role in supporting community-based independent living transitions. Tenth, education for service providers should be strengthened in practice.
Nevertheless, this study has the following limitations. First, the quantitative research used secondary data from the Korea Welfare Panel Survey, so there are limits to the variables available. Second, this study focused on cross-sectional data, making it difficult to clearly determine the causal relationship between welfare services and quality of life. Third, the moderating effect of self-esteem was not statistically confirmed in this study. Fourth, the qualitative research was conducted to complement the limitations of the quantitative study, but its generalisability is limited as participants were a small number of older people with disabilities. Fifth, while the qualitative research identified housing environment, social relationships, and institutional limitations as important contextual categories explaining the quality of life of people with disabilities, the quantitative study did not include these variables sufficiently.
Therefore, in follow-up studies, it's necessary to develop sophisticated measurement tools covering aspects like service frequency, provider attitude, user choice, service flexibility, and service satisfaction in relation to welfare services. Also, the role of self-esteem should be examined using various analytical models, and it would be useful to apply more detailed mixed research methods, longitudinal studies, and analyse the relationship between welfare services and quality of life more broadly, including not only home-based disabled individuals but also those in residential facilities, those who have left facilities, and those transitioning to independent living in the community.
Key words: persons with disabilities, welfare services for person with disabilities, quality of life, self-esteem, mixed methods, Korea Welfare Panel Study, in-depth interviews