Social Problems Confronting Korea As Perceived by College Students

초록

The present article reports a preliminary analysis of a questionnaire survey administered onto some 930 students of Inha University, Incheon City, Korea. The survey was conducted in March 1997 in an attempt to explore how Korean college students perceive social problems they find Korea confronted with. Students were given the list of 23 social problems and asked to indicate "how serious or not serious do you think each problem is in terms of its affect on Korean society." Regarding "Business Recess" six out of ten respondents were found to perceive the problem a "very serioous" one. Of the 936 respondents, 61.5 percent appeared considering the problem to be "very serious", and 33.8 percent regarding the problem as "somewhat serious". the problem a "very serious". Regarding "Public Officials' Unethical Practices" the proportion of students regarding the problem as "very serious" increased to 65.7%. When it comes to "People's Distrust in Politicians", the proportion of students checking the "very serious" category further rose to 71.1%. Other social problems with more than a half of students considering it "very serious" included "Irregularity and Corruption" (63.6%), "Politico-Business Complex" (59.3%), "Abuse of Influence by Those in Power Position" (52.9%), and "Environmental Pollution", "Congested Traffic", and "Education-related Problems" were found to belong to the next group of problems with about 45 percent of students perceiving them as "very serious". On the other hand, social problems with low proportion of students checking the "very serious" answer category included "Parent-Child Value Conflict" (5.0%) and "Intergenerational Value Conflict" (8.5%). Though admittedly limited in scope and depth, the present study is hoped to have provided some benchmark data about college students' perception of major problems in Korea : what these problems are, how serious these problems are, and which sector t