• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.307-328
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of parental overprotection on Korean college students' moral behaviors. To test the prediction that overprotected participants will show more immoral behaviors in moral dilemma situations, we measured perceived parental overprotectiveness and morality. Participants were 113 college freshmen. Two types of modified experimental paradigms were used to assess participants on their levels of justice-oriented and prosocial morality. Based on whether they displayed moral behavior (i.e., honest or helping behavior) or not, participants were included in either moral or immoral group. Second, the levels of perceived maternal overprotectiveness and paternal overprotectiveness were assessed using Korean-Parental Overprotection Scale (K-POS) and were compared between moral and immoral group. For justice-oriented morality, the results showed that the immoral group reported a significantly higher level of perceived maternal overprotection compared to the moral group (t = 2.16, p < .05). On the contrast, paternal overprotection was not related to participants' honesty. The results indicate that participants who experienced overprotective parental care are more likely to act immorally in moral dilemma situations dealing with justice. Meanwhile, for prosocial morality, both maternal and paternal overprotection levels did not result in significant difference between two groups. More Implications and limitations were discussed.