빈곤가구 아동 신체건강의 위험요인과 보호요인 = Risk or Protective Factor for the Physical Health of Children in Poverty

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The purposes of this study were to compare physical health of children in poverty and that of children in non poverty, examine the risk factors or the protective factors, and investigate each factor`s mediators between children`s poverty and their physical health. Subjects for this study were 458 students in the 4th, 5th and 6th grade of elementary schools consisting of 294 children from poverty households and 164 children from non-poverty households. The major findings were as follows: First, a significant health gap between the children in poverty and the children in non poverty was confirmed by comparing disease rates of the two groups. Second, the disease rate of girls in poverty was especially higher than boys in poverty and bad eating habits was a risk factor and the level of hygiene was a protective factor to the physical health of the children in poverty. Marital conflict of the parents in non poverty was found as a risk factor and children`s self esteem was found as a protective factor contributing to the diseases of the children in non poverty. Third, poverty was positively affected by the risk factors such as bad eating habits, sedentary lifestyles, Marital conflict and the health problems of the parents, and poverty was negatively affected by the protective factors such as hygiene and parenting. As bad eating habits have been suggested as a risk factor for diseases and hygiene has been suggested as a protective factor for diseases, those two factors were confirmed as a mediator influencing the relationship between poverty and disease. Therefore, an important implication of this study is that the child welfare field will be able to contribute to alleviation of health inequalities in one`s early life by intervening changeable factors such as hygiene and eating habits of children through prevention actions.