This study aims to look into differences in subjective well-being factors(physical condition, physical activity, media use, physical environment of school, school climate, peer relation, teacher relation and school violence) of students at elementary ...
This study aims to look into differences in subjective well-being factors(physical condition, physical activity, media use, physical environment of school, school climate, peer relation, teacher relation and school violence) of students at elementary school and middle school depending on level of school and gender.
In order to verify the research inquiry, the study referred to previously-conducted researches based on data gained from a survey designed by ‘Report on Development of Evaluation Tool for Health Promoting Schools (JEONG Hye-seon and others, 2014)’ which had been a government research project and then, extracted factors to influence subjective well-being. Any relevant statistical data was used for analysis. The study proceeded with its investigation targeting 85 health promoting schools first but based on the data in 2013, the study finally came up with these 65 schools considered qualified enough to be analyzed. A total of 1,045 fifth-year graders (540 males and 505 females) at elementary schools and these other 514 first-year graders (200 males and 314 females) at middle schools were collected as research subjects. The study applied SPSS 18 to analyzing and conducted multiple regression analysis.
The main findings of the research are summarized as follows. First, subjective well-being was perceived more successfully by the elementary school students and the male students than by the middle school students and the female students which corresponded to the findings of the advance researches. Second, the study noticed that physical condition has a positive effect on subjective well-being of all the groups. Third, as for physical activity, the study found out that it has a negative influence on the group of the female elementary school students but, it does not have any significant influence on the other groups. Fourth, media use turned out to affect the group of the male elementary school students negatively and yet, it never has a significant effect on the other research subjects. Fifth, when it comes to how physical environment of school would influence the research subjects, the study learned that only the subjective well-being of the males at elementary school and middle school is positively affected by such factor. Sixth, school climate was understood to be positively related to subjective well-being of the male and the female students at elementary school but in case of the middle school students, that of the males only is positively influenced by the school climate. Seventh, in regard to peer relation, the study confirmed that it is a factor to have a positive influence on subjective well-being of the female groups at elementary school and middle school. Eighth, in terms of teacher relation, the advance researches argued that such relation is a key factor to affect subjective well-being of the students but, as far as this study learns, the teacher relation is not considered an influential factor. The study assumes that the different result has been gained either because of some multicollinearity issue or because of how adolescents basically care more about their relations with peers than those with teachers. Ninth, the study observed that subjective well-being of all the groups is negatively affected by school violence.
In the light of the results above that have proved how differently each of the factors would influence subjective well-being of the adolescents depending on level of school and gender, this study argues for significance of educational approach to consider such differences. Not only that, the study also suggests that schools should be responsible for constant concerns for health and school violence. However, the study is considered to have a limit at the same time for it had collected the relevant factors using the secondary data and plus, since the study had discussed only the influences of the subjective well-being factors working on multiple regression analysis, follow-up researches to investigate direct and indirect factors of the relevant factors should be carried out.