Keumjoo Kwak

Victimization in Korean schools: the nature, incidence, and distinctive features of Korean bullying or wang-ta

ABSTRACT School bullying in South Korea may take different forms from bullying in western societies, and there is little data on its nature and extent nationally. We report results from a nationwide survey on the Korean form of bullying, wang-ta. Two pilot studies were carried out, to adapt a western-based questionnaire for use in Korea. With the revised questionnaire a survey was carried out across five main regions of South Korea. Participants (N = 2,926), aged between 11 to 16 years, were from randomly selected schools. Altogether 5.8% of Korean pupils reported receiving wang-ta and 10.2% reported that they did wang-ta to other peers, more than once or twice in the last term. Unlike in western countries, in Korea the number of bullies was larger than the number of victims, there were more girl than boy bullies, and very few pupils were bullied by those from higher grades. The most cited forms for both receiving and giving wang-ta were verbal, followed by relational; physical forms were relatively infrequent. The findings are discussed in relation to understanding similarities and differences between eastern and western forms of bullying, and implications for intervention in Korean schools.

Maternal personality and parenting cognitions in cross-cultural perspective

A total of 467 mothers of firstborn 20-month-old children from 7 countries (103 Argentine, 61 Belgian, 39 Israeli, 78 Italian, 57 Japanese, 69 Korean, and 60 US American) completed the Jackson Personality Inventory (JPI), measures of parenting cognitions (self-perceptions and knowledge), and a social desirability scale. Our first analysis showed that the Five-Factor structure of personality (Openness, Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) could be extracted from the JPI scales when cross-cultural data from mothers in the 7 countries were analyzed; it was also replicable and generalizable in mothers from so-called individualist and collectivist cultures. Our second analysis showed that the five personality factors relate differently to diverse parenting cognitions in those individualist versus collectivist cultures. Maternal personality has significance in studies of normative parenting, child development, and family process across cultural contexts.

The Acculturation of Parenting Cognitions A Comparison of South Korean, Korean Immigrant, and European American Mothers

A three-culture comparison—native South Korean, Korean immigrants to the United States, and native European American mothers—of two types of parenting cognitions—attributions and self-perceptions—was undertaken to explore cultural contributions to parenting cognitions and their adaptability among immigrant mothers. Attributions and self-perceptions of parenting were chosen because they influence parenting behavior and children’s development and vary cross-culturally. One hundred seventy-nine mothers of 20-month-old children participated: 73 South Korean, 50 Korean immigrant, and 56 European American. Korean mothers differed from European American mothers on four of the five types of attributions studied and on all four self-perceptions of parenting, and these differences were largely consistent with the distinct cultural values of South Korea and the United States. Generally, Korean immigrant mothers’ attributions for parenting more closely resembled those of mothers in the United States, whereas their self-perceptions of parenting more closely resembled those of mothers in South Korea. This study provides insights into similarities and differences in cultural models of parenting, and information about the acculturation of parenting cognitions among immigrants from South Korea.

15 – South Korea

Publisher Summary The Wechsler test is one of the most used, individually administered, standardized measures for assessing intelligence in children and adults. The primary purpose of intelligence testing is to classify individuals based on their overall level of cognitive functioning. The Korean version of the original Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) was initially standardized in 1974. The Korean Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised was standardized in 1991 and has been used for assessing the intelligence of children of ages 5 through 15, instead of 6 through 16 as in the original version. This was created because the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI), which is for younger children, was not yet developed in Korea. Since the Korean WPPSI for children ages 3 through 7 was published in 1996, it became necessary to readjust the lowest age limit of the WISC to 6 and to extend it to 16. Therefore, in the case of Korean Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Third Edition, the ages were readjusted back to 6 through 16 and the items were selected in order to reflect the original items. Nonetheless, some items necessarily had to be corrected or substituted to suit the Korean-speaking children and the order of items was also somewhat changed due to the cultural differences.

Stability of temperament in South Korean infants from 6 to 12 to 18 months: Moderation by age, gender, and birth order ☆

Temperament in infancy is generally viewed as constitutionally based individual differences in emotional, motor, and ttentional reactivity and self-regulation (Rothbart & Bates, 2006). Despite infants’ rapid overall development in the first ears of life (Bornstein, Arterberry, & Lamb, 2014), relative stability of infant temperament has been consistently reported e.g., Bornstein et al., 2015; Rothbart, 1986). However, current theory suggests that systems that control/inhibit temperament merge later in infancy, changing the expression and stability of temperament (Shiner et al., 2012). Moreover, stability is ot static, but dynamic, and many factors are acknowledged to moderate stability, including the characteristic studied, evelopmental stage, and the temporal interval between assessments. In short, stability in development is contingent, not bsolute, underscoring the need to study its sensitivity to moderators. Is temperament stable in infants in non-Western cultures, and is it (equivalently) stable in younger and older infants, girls nd boys, firstborns and laterborns? Characteristics of development that appear universal may be culturally specific and vice ersa (Bornstein, Haynes, Pascual, Painter, & Galperín, 1999). Cultural variation in the stability of infant temperament can e anticipated insofar as biological foundations of individual differences vary between groups (Way & Lieberman, 2010) and ecause temperament is open to experience, such as differences in “developmental niches” of infants (Super & Harkness, 986). In addition, the majority of existing research on the stability of infant temperament has been carried out in Western ultures, despite considerable evidence of potential cultural influences on temperament development (Chen & Schmidt, 015). Thus, further study of the robustness of the early stability of temperament, especially in non-Western settings like outh Korea, is warranted. The transition from infancy to early childhood represents a period of major developmental change and reorganization, hus it is possible that temperament is more stable within, rather than between these stages (Goldsmith et al., 1987). tudies of infant temperament that considered child gender as a moderator suggest generally similar stability in girls and oys (with some differentiation by dimension; Bornstein et al., 2015; Garcia Coll, Halpern, Vohr, Seifer, & Oh, 1992). At he same time, biological differences between infant girls and boys are compounded by differential treatment they receive rom caregivers (Bornstein, 2013). Birth order has not been evaluated as widely, yet likely plays a role with respect to