2015, Vol., No.48

Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.39

pISSN : 1598-4230 / eISSN : 2586-7601
https://journal.kci.go.kr/ihss

This study investigated whether and how middle school adolescents’ level of sense of community changes over three years. The middle school cohort data of the Korean Children-Youth Panel 2010 were used for analysis. The validity of using adolescents’ sense of community as an outcome variable over three years was checked using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis. The sense of community items were interpreted in the same way by the adolescents at each point over three years. Using a two- level hierarchical linear growth model, this study assessed the pattern of change in adolescents’ sense of community. The results of the basic growth model showed a positive linear trend in the level of sense of community. However, there was no statistically significant variation in the rate of change in the level of sense of community among adolescents. Adolescents’ gender was not statistically significantly associated with the rate of change in their level of sense of community, either. Except for satisfaction with field study experience and time spent for reading, most variables used for level-1 predictors were statistically significant. Among the level 2 variables, female students, female school students compared to coed, and family annual income were positively associated with the adolescents’ sense of community, but the hours spent for private education, the location of residence (city vs. others), and male only schools were not significant.

I investigated three areas through this study to look into multicultural family members' recognition and attitude about 'bilingual education policy of multicultural society in Korea.' They are recognition and attitude about bilingual education and social integration in Korea, those about educational environment of multicultural community, and those about educational policy for multicultural community. I came to three conclusions by analysis. First, multicultural family members have open and receptive attitude towards multicultural society and they have strong willingness to participate in bilingual educational programs. Second, in the light of demography, women rather than men, those younger, those lower educated, those having shorter residence period have positive attitude towards bilingual and multicultural society. Third, multicultural family members who are older or higher educated think that multicultural family members' opinions need to be reflected in multicultural policy making. This analysis shows that bilingual education should be improved qualitatively and enhanced for desirable social integration, respect of language right and enhancement of citizens' multicultural bilingual capabilities.

The current study mainly aims to investigate the influences of self-concept on the academic achievement as well as any differences between male and female students in the 7th, 9th, 12th grades. The results from the study revealed that male students were at a higher levels of self-conception than female students across all three grades. More specifically, statistically significant differences between male and female students existed in their physical self-concept. In addition, the findings of the study showed that influences of sub-domains of self-concept on academic achievements differenced across the three grades.