Design: A cross-sectional study using a survey method.

Sample, Setting : A convenience sample of 112 persons with spinal cord injury living in two cities in South Korea completed a self-administered questionnaire between May 20 and August 24, 2001.

Variables: Self-esteem, social support, social barriers, coping and social reintegration.

Instrument : The instrument was a structured questionnaire which included the Rosenberg scale of self-esteem, the perceived family support scale developed by Kang (1984), the informational support subscale modified from the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List developed by McColl and Skinner (1995), a measurement of social barriers developed and validated by Song (2001), the problem-focused coping scale and emotion-focused coping scale modified from the Ways of Coping Questionnaire developed by Folkman and Lazarus (1984), and a measurement of social reintegration modified from the Social Adjustment Scale developed by Weissman and Bothwell(1976) .

Methods : Descriptive statistics were used to analyze demographic characteristics and injury related data, and Pearson's correlations were computed to examine the relationships of the variables. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to identify the predictors of social reintegration.

Findings: 1) Significant positive relationships were discovered between self-esteem, family support, informational support, emotional-focused coping, problem-focused coping and social reintegration (p < .001). 2) Self-esteem, family support, problem-focused coping, and social barriers were found to account for 40% of the social reintegration.

Conclusions & Implications: The results showed that the social reintegration of persons with spinal cord injury was influenced by self-esteem, family support, problem-focused coping, and social barriers. These findings suggest implication for developing the interventions specific to individual coping strategies, including family and community, to promote social reintegration of this population.

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Sigma Theta Tau International
July 22-24, 2004