• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.35-47
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• 2007

The purpose of the present study was to determine and describe preschool children's conceptions of their social situation (moral, social-conventional, and personal situation) in the context of their homes and classrooms. The subjects of this study included 78 children who were enrolled in a kindergarten in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, Korea. The results of this study indicated that children were able to distinguish the difference between a classroom and the home using information of very concrete content when they conceptualized three social situations. In the socially-controlled domain (the moral and social-conventional), children recognized that a classroom was more restricted and rigid than the home, and they depended more heavily on the teachers' authority. By way of contrast, in the personal domain, they depended more heavily on parents, with whom they were more intimate, but who exerted authority in a stronger and more direct manner than the teachers.