• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.267-280
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• 2013

College tuition is a significant economic, social, and political issue in Korea. We conduct a Bayesian analysis of a hierarchical model to address the factors related to college tuition based on a survey data collected by Statistics Korea. A binary response variable is selected depending on if more than 70% of tuition costs are supported by parents, and a hierarchical Probit model is constructed with areas as groups. A set of explanatory variables is selected from a factor analysis of available variables in the survey. A Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm is used to estimate parameters. From the analysis results, income and stress are significantly related to college tuition support from parents. Parents with high income tend to support children's college tuition and students with parents' financial support tend to be mentally less stressed; subsequently, this shows that the economic status of parents significantly affects the mental health of college students. Gender, a healthy life style, and college satisfaction are not significant factors. Comparing areas in terms of the degrees of correlation between stress/income and tuition support from parents, students in Kangwon-do are the most mentally stressed when parents' support is limited; in addition, the positive correlation between parents support and income is stronger in big cities compared to provincial areas.