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Perceived Trajectories of Past, Present, and Future Life Satisfaction of North Korean Defectors

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Abstract

This study compared perceived trajectories of life satisfaction (LS) between North Korean defectors’ (NKDs’) and the general South Korean population and examined psychosocial factors associated with future LS. Data were obtained from 300 NKDs residing in South Korea and 5089 South Koreans using self-questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. LS values from 5 years ago (3.46 vs. 6.18) and at present (5.30 vs. 5.91) were lower in NKDs than the control group, but the inverse was true for expected LS score in 5 years (7.82 vs. 6.87). NKDs’ LS trajectory showed a more statistically positive trend than that of the control group. Among NKDs, subjective sense of loneliness and satisfaction with one’s sense of autonomy were associated with expected future LS. NKDs experience higher life satisfaction and expect an optimistic future relative to the control group. Social policies and therapeutic approaches to loneliness and improving a sense of autonomy may be beneficial.

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Abbreviations

BRS:

Brief Resilience Scale

CIDI:

WHO-Composite International Diagnostic Interview

K-CIDI:

Korean version of the WHO-Composite International Diagnostic Interview

LS:

Life satisfaction

PPSWR:

Probability proportional to size without replacement

CD-RISC:

Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale

WHO:

World Health Organization

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea for their support of data collection.

Funding

This work was supported by the Korea Healthcare Technology R&D project, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea [HM15C1072].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 81 Irwon-rong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, 06351, South Korea

    Hyochul Lee, Haesoo Kim, Ji Hyun An, Kyoung Eun Lee, Carolyn Seungyoun Moon & Jin Pyo Hong

  2. Department of Psychology, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea

    Hye In Chang

  3. Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Su Yeon Lee-Tauler

  4. Statistics and Data Center, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea

    Sook Young Woo

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  1. Hyochul Lee
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Correspondence to Jin Pyo Hong.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Written informed consent was obtained from all participants before conducting self questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. This study was conducted with the approval of institutional review board, the Samsung Seoul Hospital Clinical Research Committee.

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Lee, H., Kim, H., An, J.H. et al. Perceived Trajectories of Past, Present, and Future Life Satisfaction of North Korean Defectors. J Immigrant Minority Health 22, 786–794 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-019-00944-z

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