The 2025 KOWEPS 20^th Anniversary Conference

• ■Co-hosted by KIHASA and the SNU Institute of Social Welfare and co-organized with a total of 10 academic societies including the Korean Society of Gerontological Social Welfare
  
  

• ■Featuring a total of twelve presentations on five themes: Children & Youth; Poverty; Health and Mental Health; Women & Family; and Quality of Life.
  
  

• ■Two special presentations marking the 20^th anniversary: “20 Years of the Korea Welfare Panel Study: Achievements and Limitations” and “20 Years of Korea Welfare Panel Research: Trends and Assessment”
  
  

• ■In his opening address, KIHASA President Shin Young-seok stressed the significance of this year’s conference as a forum for reflecting on 20 years of achievements and addressing future challenges of the Korea Welfare Panel Study.
  
  

KIHASA and the Seoul National University Institute of Social Welfare jointly held the 2025 KOWEPS Conference on Tuesday, September 30, at 10:00 a.m. at the Korea Chamber of Commerce in Seoul to commemorate the 20^th anniversary of the Korea Welfare Panel Study.

In the morning, three parallel sessions were held, featuring a total of seven presentations on the following themes: Children & Youth, Poverty, and Health & Mental Health.

• ●The session on Children & Youth, chaired by Professor Lee Bong-joo of Seoul National University, featured two presentations, including “High School Students’ Career Maturity, Career Aspiration Types, and Influencing Factors” by Jeong Yoon-mi and Choi Hong-il of the  National Youth Policy Institute.
  
  

• ●The session on Poverty, chaired by Professor Jeong Won-oh of Sungkonghoe University, featured three papers, including “The Effect of Pension Receipt on Asset Poverty Transition among Older Adults: Focusing on Basic Pension and Public Pensions” by Park Jong and Kim Jae-seung of Sungkyunkwan University.
  
  

• ●The session on Health and Mental Health, chaired by Director Kang Sang-kyung  of the Institute of Social Welfare, SNU, comprised two presentations, one of which was “Life Satisfaction Trajectories of Individuals Experiencing Mental Health Difficulties and the Impact of Services: Focus on Care Integration Services and Mental Health Risk Groups” by Park Jong-eun of the SNU Institute for Social Sciences.

Beginning at 1:20 p.m., KIHASA Research Fellow Lee Won-jin and SNU Institute of Social Welfare Director Kang delivered special commemorative presentations on “20 Years of the Korea Welfare Panel Survey: Achievements and Limitations” and “20 Years of Korea Welfare Panel Research: Trends, Achievements, and Assessment,” respectively.

The afternoon comprised three concurrent sessions that lasted from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. Two sessions covered the themes of Women & Family and Quality of Life, featuring five presentations in total, and the third session was dedicated to graduate student research.

• ●The session on Women & Family, chaired by Senior Research Fellow Jeon Jin-a of KIHASA, included two papers, among them, “Factors Influencing Individual Trajectories by Latent Class of Subjective Well-being among Middle-aged Married Women” by Kim Joo-hyun and Cho Hwa-jin of Hannam University.
   
  

• ●The session on Quality of Life, chaired by Professor Park Jeong-min of SNU, comprised three presentations, including “Longitudinal Pathways of Internal Capabilities in the Elderly and Trajectory Comparisons by Group Characteristics: Using Sequence Data Extrapolation for Multidimensional Predictions” by Noh Beop-rae of Pukyong National University.
   
  

• ●The Graduate Student Session, chaired by Research Fellow Lee Won-jin of KIHASA, presented three studies, one of which was “Persistence of Housing Benefit Effects and Heterogeneous Impacts on Housing-Vulnerable Households: A Comparative Analysis Based on RIR and Residual Income Indicators” by Kim Ye-eun.

As in previous years, this year’s conference also arranged an awards ceremony for the Graduate Student Paper Competition, as well as a special lecture. The awards were presented by Director Kang Sang-kyung, and Professor Lee Jeong-min of SNU gave the special lecture on “Panel Data Analysis Methods and Applications.”

President Shin Young-seok noted the Korea Welfare Study as one of the most widely used panel studies in academic and policy research, encompassing income, assets, living conditions, and welfare needs. He also emphasized the panel’s specialization in policy research for low-income individuals. Remarking on the conference, he underscored its significance this year as a forum for reflecting on the Korea Welfare Panel Study’s achievements over the past 20 years and considering its future challenges.

The KOWEPS Conference is an academic event that brings together experts from academia and the policy sector to share research findings and discuss welfare policy and social issues.