• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.43 no.3 s.205
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• pp.221-231
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• 2005

This study investigated the cross-cultural differences in temperament among Chinese, Korean-Chinese, and Korean children. Subjects were 1,046(258 Korean-Chinese, 290 Chinese, and 498 Korean) 4th graders from Yanji in China and Seoul and Ulsan in Korea. The short form of the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire Scale-Revised containing 10 scales of 54 items was translated into Korean for Korean and Korean-Chinese children and into Chinese for Chinese children and was administered to children via home-room teachers. Chinese children rated themselves higher on activation control, attention, and pleasure- and perceptual-sensitivity subscales than other groups. On the contrary, Chinese-Korean children rated themselves higher on the affiliation subscale and Korean children rated themselves higher on the aggression subscale than other groups. There were larger gender differences among Chinese and Korean-Chinese than among Korean children: Gender difference was found in activation control, aggression, and attention subscales among Chinese children and in affiliation, aggression, attention and fear subscales among Korean-Chinese. There was only significant difference in pleasure sensitivity among Korean. Rapid westernization in Korea seems to be responsible for this result. Since there were significant differences of temperament between Korean and Korean-Chinese, and between Chinese and Korean-Chinese, it was interpreted that children's temperament is influenced by both their environment and genetic endowment.