Backgrounds: In response to the changing social and cultural environments in Korea, early childhood education necessitates a change in teaching practices to meet the needs of children from diverse family backgrounds. Researchers have long been concern...
Backgrounds: In response to the changing social and cultural environments in Korea, early childhood education necessitates a change in teaching practices to meet the needs of children from diverse family backgrounds. Researchers have long been concerned about regionallism and anti-bias education and have noticed that parents and teachers can be critical factors for influencing children's attitudes and behaviors as a result of their own attitudes toward bias areas.
Objectives: The aims of this study were to investigate the social biases in the mothers of preschoolers and to analyse the results by region and by academic career.
Methods: 1304 survey questionnaires were mailed to the mothers of preschool-age children in four regions(Kyung-Ki, Chung-Chong, Ho-Nam, Young-Nam). 654 mothers who completed the survey questionnaires for the study were evaluated. The survey questionnaire was composed of 4 parts (characteristics of the object of prejudice, degree of preferences, degree of intention to make friends with and factors considered in making acquaintances) and based on the previous work of Min (1989) and Hall & Romberg (1985). SPSS 10.0 software (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL) was used for statistical analysis. ANOVA and student-t test were used to compare means between groups. P < 0.05 was deemed significant.
Results : Among the objects of prejudice, mothers of preschoolers were more biased against the old, the disabled, the obese and the poor, and negative thinking was especially great in the Chung-Chong region. The degree of preference was lower in the obese, the poor, the divorced and the homosexual. Degree of reluctance to be a friend was higher in the old, the divorced and the homosexual and highest in the Chung-Chong region. The higher the level of education, the greater the reluctance to be friends with
the old and with North Koreans. Factors considered in making acquaintances were age, ability, appearance, social class, sex, family background and religion. The higher the level of education, the more important the factors. In summary, mothers in Chung-Chong region showed more biases against old, disabled and divorced people than those in other areas. and the higher the education, the higher the biases against the people of low socioeconomic status.
Conclusion : The results revealed different degree of biases between groups divided by region, education and occupation. On the basis of these results, anti-bias education in Korea should be individualized to fit the
region and the education of the mothers of preschool age children. Further randomized and prospective studies about the relationship of biases between mother and child are needed to confirm this suggestion.