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The National Assembly Futures Institute publishes reports that predict and analyze the changes in the future environment based on a comprehensive perspective, and derive mid- to long-term national development strategies in consideration of the preferences of the citizens
[20-07] Psychological and Social Capital in Korea: The Current State and Strategy for Education

Date : 2020-12-31 item : Research Report 20-07 P.I : Sung Moon-ju et al.

[20-07] Psychological and Social Capital in Korea: The Current State and Strategy for Education

This study aimed to explore mid- to long-term strategies by suggestingpotential policy approaches centered around the field of education in orderto develop the psychological and social capital of society. 

To this end, thisstudy diagnosed levels of psychological and social capital at the individuallevel and derived potential policy approaches as educational interventionsthat can help to promote the levels of psychological and social capital basedon the results of the diagnosis.By definition, psychological capital involves a positive developmental stateof individuals with high self-efficacy, optimism, hope, and resilience(Luthans et al., 2004).

Social capital connotes intangible capital that isderived from social relations and benefits both individuals and the public(Kim Hee-sam, 2017, p. 22).The data were collected from 1,016 people aged from 19 to 69 years old inKorea using the Gallup online panel. Existing measures were employed toassess the levels of the components of psychological capital (i.e., hope,self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism) and social capital (i.e., interpersonaltrust, public trust, norm, participation, and social network). The data wereanalyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and one-wayANOVA.

The results of this study showed that the mean of resilience was the lowestamong the components of psychological capital, and the means ofparticipation, social support network, and public trust were lower than theother components of social capital. Also, the correlation analysis indicatedthat most of the variables were positively correlated with the others. In addition, the results demonstrated that there were significant meandifferences in several components of psychological and social capitalaccording to one’s income level, parents’ education and income levels inadolescence.

This study proposed potential education policy in the areas of primary andsecondary education, post-secondary education, and lifelong education andhuman resource development according to the individual's life cycle in orderto develop psychological and social capital. These suggestions includedpromoting more systematic parental education as lifelong educationprograms with high accessibility, designing and implementing various studentevaluation methods and criteria based on designing valuing systems insecondary education, and strengthening educational welfare fordisadvantaged students in both secondary and post-secondary education.