The purpose of this study is to reveal effects of social support on life satisfaction of deaf people in
Korea. This study uses 805 registered deaf people by "survey on persons with disabilities" conducted by
Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2008 as the unit of analysis. Social support which is the major
explanatory factor that might have the impact on life satisfaction has two sub-categories: the total amount
of economic assistance and needs-based assistance.
To enumerate the total amount of economic assistance, two different indicators are used in this study:
public-transferred income and private-transferred income.
To enumerate the needs-based assistance, two different indicators are also used: demand for social support
and sufficiency to social support. These indicates are measured through self-rating method conducted by
deal people. This study can be differentiated from previous studies as it includers the total amount of
economic assistance and the needs-based assistance as the major factors to reveal life satisfaction.
According to the result of analysis, among social support factors, demand for social support and
sufficiency to social support are statistically significant while indicators of public-transferred income and
private-transferred income are not statistically significant. This result means more demand for social support
and sufficiency to social support have the impact on higher life satisfaction.
This study is meaningful because this study finds that to make deaf people satisfied in their life,
needs-based assistance is a key solution while economic support might not be working for deal people's
life satisfaction.