The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the experience of adult Korean children who are caregivers for parents institutionalized with dementia.

Participants were fourteen adult children caregivers of elders institutionalized with dementia. Data were collected through in-depth unstructured interviews with individual participants from August to November, 2012. Theoretical sampling was used to the point of theoretical saturation. Data were analyzed using Strauss and Corbin's Grounded Theory Method.

From open coding, 67 concepts, 29 sub-categories, and 14 categories were identified. Analysis revealed that the core category of the experience of adult children caring for their parents institutionalized with dementia was 'enduring the role of a prop' consisting of four phases: initial turmoil, exploration, role adjustment, and acclimation. To manage the role of a prop, participants utilized various action/interactional strategies such as overcoming the unfamiliarity, overseeing the nursing home care, and counterbalancing the caring roles. As a result, participants experienced ambivalence towards the existence of parents with dementia, changes in family relationships, altered viewpoint towards nursing homes, and restructuring of life.

In-depth understanding of the experience will guide nurses to promote effective interventions in order to better support the Korean family caregivers of parents institutionalized with dementia.

The purpose of this study was to explore the resilience of adult children of alcoholics (ACOA) who are college students, and examine factors contributing to their resilience.

A total of 459 college students from a university in Incheon, participated in this study. Data were collected between April 6 to 30, 2010 using the Korean version of the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST-K), CAGE, Social Support, Self-Esteem, Family Adaptability and Cohesion, and Resilience measurements. Data were analyzed using the SPSS/WIN 18.0 program.

Overall, ACOA group showed lower scores of resilience, social support, self-esteem and family adaptability and cohesion compared to non-ACOA group. Resilience among the ACOA group showed significant relationships with self-esteem (r=.53, p<.001), social support (r=.43, p<.001), and family adaptability and cohesion (r=.25, p<.013). Multiple regression analysis showed that 45% of the variance for resilience in the ACOA group was accounted for by age, gender, social support, self-esteem, and religion.

The results of the study show that self-esteem and social support are important determinants of resilience in ACOA, thus it is recommend that further resilience training programs for ACOA be developed to enhance their social support and self-esteem, and ultimately to increase their resilience.