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Elementary School Students’ Prosocial Experiences in South Korea: A Case Study

Child Indicators Research volume 10, pages 995–1014 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

This case study demonstrates how elementary school students’ selective prosocial responding towards their peers is associated with the targets’ different peer sociometric status in the classroom. Participants include 23 fourth graders and their teacher in a private elementary school in Seoul, South Korea. The findings of this study include: 1) Students were selectively prosocial toward their peers, based on the targets’ peer acceptance and popularity; 2) The group norms associated with the criteria of peer acceptance and popularity seemed to be related to liking of liked individuals; and 3) Being friendly and comforting was commonly enacted by the students in the classroom, even toward disliked individuals; however, giving and instrumental helping was more frequent with popular targets than with disliked ones. The findings of the study indicate that students’ prosocial experiences are shaped by their selective choice of behavior based on in-group-out-group distinctions.

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Notes

  1. According to Gu (2007), the income level of parents whose children attend private elementary schools is relatively higher than that of parents whose children attend public schools. For private elementary schools, 90 % of the parents are higher than upper-middle class. In terms of parents’ level of education, 95 % of the fathers have a bachelor’s degree while 90 % of the mothers do. 82.2 % of the fathers are white collar workers. In South Korea, private elementary schools undoubtedly attract students of higher socioeconomic status than schools in the public system.

  2. It has been reported that socioeconomic status (SES) has an impact on ways of parenting that affects children’s socio-emotional development including children’s prosocial behavior (McLoyd 1998). While a warm, structured, and consistent parenting style promotes children’s prosocial behavior (Masten and Coatsworth 1998), parents from low-income families were found to be more punitive and less affectionate towards their children (McLoyd and Wilson 1991).

  3. M denotes a boy while F denotes a girl.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Family Studies, College of Human Ecology, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyunghee-daero, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 130-701, Republic of Korea

    Kyung Eun Jahng

  2. Department of Teaching and Learning, University of Nevada Las Vegas, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV, 89154-3005, USA

    Katrina Liu

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  1. Kyung Eun Jahng
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  2. Katrina Liu
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Correspondence to Katrina Liu.

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Jahng, K.E., Liu, K. Elementary School Students’ Prosocial Experiences in South Korea: A Case Study. Child Ind Res 10, 995–1014 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-016-9408-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-016-9408-9

Keywords

  • Prosocial behavior
  • Elementary school students
  • Peer acceptance and popularity
  • Multidimensionality in prosocial behavior

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