A Study on Conception of Friendship in Korean Children of School Age
Ju Ok Lee
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the components in friendship as reported by Korean children of School age. Specially, four major aspects of friendship - definition of friendship, friendship formation, friendship expectation, and friendship termination were explored. The subjects of this study consisted of 600 elementary school children in Grades 1 through 6, 50 males and 50 females at each grade level. Based on Bigelow (1977) five open - ended questions were administered. First and second graders were interviewed individually while 3rd-6th graders replied to a questionnaire in class. For content analysis, responses of each child were coded into 22 categories and each category was assigned a score from 1 to 4 according to its frequency. The data were analyzed by factor analysis. The results showed that four major aspects of friendship in Korean children of school age were found to consist of four different factors. DEFINITION OF FRIENDSHIP was found to consist of the factors; 1) reciprocity of liking vs. helping 2) global evaluation vs. helping 3) sharing and 4) common activities. FRIENDSHIP FORMATION was found to consist of the factors; 1) situational effects vs. complex evaluation 2)structural dimension vs. common activities 3)helping and 4)staring. FRIENDSHIP EXPECTATION was found to consist of the factors; 1) mutuality 2) common activities vs. loyalty & commitment 3) exclusive - dyadic activities vs. admiration (character) and 4) interactive altruism. FRIENDSHIP TERMINATION was found to consist of the factors; 1) physical separation vs. disappointment (character) 2) conflict 3) physical separation vs. psychological dimension and 4) general altruism.
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