청소년기 초기의 부모-자녀 및 친구 관계

Korean and German Parent -Child Relations and Friendships in Early Adolescence - An Application of Collectivism and Individualism -

Individualism and collectivism as a dimension of cultural diversity were applied to the research of social relations in adolescence. The purpose of the present study was to investigate parent-child relations and friendships of 119 14-year-old Korean and German adolescents. The participants reported daily for a week about social contacts with significant people in their lives regarding 9 social functions. The Korean adolescents who live in a collectivism-oriented society and the German adolescents who belong to an individualism-oriented society had different criteria to classify social relations: While the issue of ‘blood-relationship’ was an important factor in social contacts of Korean participants, ‘age’ of persons was more important than any other variables for German participants. The Korean adolescents tended to avoid conflicts with parents and compared themselves with their friends more than did German adolescents. In contrast, German adolescents had more conflict with their parents and friends than did Korean adolescents, but their self-esteem was more supported by both relations. Differences between both countries in the tendency to encourage independence and individuality of adolescents were considered as one important reason for the cultural differences.