An Analysis of Elementary School Students\' Character Strengths and Virtues as Described by their Parents in Korea
AUTHOR : 문용린,원현주,백수현,안선영
INFORMATION : page. 17~35 / 2008 Vol.15 No.4
ABSTRACT
This study sought to explore whether it was possible to discern distinct cultural differences from pre-existing classifications pertaining to strengths and virtues of Korean children as described in writing by their parents. 183 parents of first and second grade elementary school students from Seoul and Gyoungnam province were asked to describe any minor traits as well as the distinctive character strengths of their children. The character description terms referring to the children were then extracted after analyzing the results from the written parental descriptions. Based on these terms, categorical differences were reviewed and compared with the pre-existing classification system, VIA(values in Action), and were then also assessed by gender. The data accumulated through the open-questionnaire, asking the parents to detail their children\'s character traits, was then categorized according to content with similar meaning. Frequency analysis was then performed on these figures. As a result, 60 distinct character description terms were identified regarding Korean children. After categorizing these 60 terms according to the VIA, the known 24 groupings of character strengths were identified, as well as the additional character strengths of composure and generosity. The fact that Korean parents recognized all these traits in their children was an indication of cultural uniqueness. Additionally, the most common representative virtue was humanity and the five signature strengths were social intelligence, kindness, self-regulation, humor, and zest. According to gender, male children were found to be more socialized, while the other four strengths were more present in females.