Peer-Reviewed Articles
Lee, A., Park, A., & Jo, H. (2023). Social Comparison Concerns and Competitive Attitudes of North Korean Refugees and South Koreans: Measurement Invariance and Latent Mean Differences1. Japanese Psychological Research. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpr.12456
Abstract: Although refugees often face competition in their efforts to survive and achieve upward mobility, little is understood about their psychological processes concerning competition. In this regard, we attempted to assess the extent to which North Korean refugees (NKRs) engage in social comparisons and exhibit competitive attitudes compared to their South Korean (SK) host citizens. We targeted NKRs and SKs, as we could control for the shared cultural heritage. First, we tested measurement invariance to determine whether there was a psychometric equivalence in the two latent constructs of social comparison concerns (SCCs) and competitive attitudes (CAs) between NKRs (n1 = 214) and SKs (n2 = 472). Partial scalar invariance was established to demonstrate the association between SCC and CA, suggesting that only certain aspects of the two latent constructs were comparable between NKRs and SKs. Compared to SKs, NKRs exhibit a significantly higher level of SCC for self-evaluating abilities and opinions of individuals and their significant others, and CA about interpersonal and goal competitiveness with a medium effect size.
Abstract: This study examines undergraduate research experiences at a minority-serving institution (MSI) in a political science laboratory. Students contributed to projects in a collaborative research lab at the University of California Riverside that involves undergraduate and graduate students in projects related to health and politics. Adopting a participatory approach to research, the study’s research participants also are coauthors who co-created the research protocols; collected the data; transcribed, coded, and analyzed the data; and wrote up the findings. Our analysis of 12 in-depth interviews with current and former undergraduate research assistants (RAs) found that their work in the lab challenged their perceptions of what research is and what it means to do research; shaped their path to pursue graduate studies; developed their social and professional skills; and offered an inclusive and humanizing experience with graduate students and faculty members. Challenges that the RAs mentioned included time management, bureaucratic accounting and payroll procedures, and feelings of self-doubt; the lab’s culture of inclusion and independence mitigated some of these challenges. Our findings align with the scholarly literature that suggests collaborative research opportunities can have beneficial outcomes, particularly for students from groups that are underrepresented in doctoral programs.
Myeong, A., Lee, A., Park, A., Gong, Y.E., Kim, M.,& Jo, H. (2020).Psychosocial-Adjustment Needs of North Korean Refugee Youth from the Perspectives of Alternative-School Members. Journal of Refugee Studies. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/feaa008
Abstract: Research has shown that North Korean refugee (NKR) youth who defected to South Korea are at high risk for multiple psychosocial-adjustment problems. However, little is known about the perceptions of these difficulties on the part of alternative-school community members who interact with them on a daily basis, although such perceptions could provide a rich description of the cultural and environmental aspects associated with these issues. Using a rapid ethnographic assessment, this study explored NKR youth’s psychosocial-adjustment needs from the perspectives of community members of alternative schools that offer NKR students not only education, but food, housing and 24-hour care without charge. Twenty-seven free listing interviews identified that NKR students suffer from three major psychosocial issues: (a) not feeling loved/lack of affection, (b) identity confusion and (c) communication issues/language difficulties. The subsequent seven key informant interviews revealed the perceived symptoms, causes and effects of the psychosocial issues identified and strategies used to cope with them.
박은아. (2017). 한국 정부의 탈북민 신자유주의적 주체 만들기 통치성에 관한 연구. 통일인문학, 72, 169-196, 10.21185/jhu.2017.12.72.169
(English translation) Park,E.A.(2017).A Study on the Governmentality of Making North Korean Migrants into Neoliberal Subjects: Focusing on the Analysis of ‘Chakkan Neighbor’ Discourse in South Korea. The Journal of the Humanities for Unification, Vol. 72, pp. 169 196. DOI : 10.21185/jhu.2017.12.72.169.
Astract: Since the division of the two Koreas, North Koreans arriving in the South have been interpellated with several names, such as ‘North"s Defected Soldiers, Defected Ethnic North Koreans, and Defected North Korean Residents.’ In this study, the main argument is that the temporal contextual changes in the interpellation of North Koreans reflect the governmentality of the South Korean government toward North Korean migrants. By echoing the theoretical framework of governmentality suggested by Foucault, this study examines the governing power and its characteristics through conceptualizing ‘Chakkan(successful settlement in South Korea)Neighbor’ interpellation, which is a newly released name for North korean migrants, as the conduct of the South Korean government toward North Korean migrants. The results of this study are as follows. The ‘Chakkan Neighbor’ project has been initiated with the aim of improving the negative image of North Korean migrants in the South and carried out through various policies, such as ‘discovering and collecting successful resettlement cases’ and ‘organizing voluntary groups.’ The ‘Chakkan Neighbor’ interpellation as the South Korean government’s conduct guides North Korean migrants to learn about South Korea and conceal the characteristics of their North Korean-ness. The most emphasized message is self-reliance and self-subsistence of North Korean migrans, which demands them shifting from welfare dependents to neoliberal homo economicus. The structural discrimination of South Korean society is not mentioned or hidden; however, the causes of North Korean migrants’maladaptation and their economic failure are attributed to their laziness and insincerity.
Book Chapters
Park, Eun-A.(Forthcoming 2025). Invisible and Unspoken Competition in North Korea: Narrative of the Author from North Korea. In A. Lee, E.A. Park, & H. Jo (Eds.), Questioning Conventional Assumptions about Competition Dynamics. United Kingdom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.