• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.263-280
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• 2014

The purpose of our study was to figure out the generation gap between adolescents group and parents group in the sub-dimensions of perceptions on online games, such as harmfulness and benefits of online games, impacts and values of online games, parent-adolescent relationship with regard to online game activities, and government regulation of online games. To this end, we conducted online survey targeting middle or high school students and parents with children attending middle or high school regarding the perceptions on online games. As a result, we identified the similarities and differences between adolescents and parents generation in the sub-dimensions of perceptions on online games. Especially, we found significant differences between adolescents and parents generation in the perceptions on violence and sociality of online games. This result shows that the generation gap in these two factors may cause the conflict between parents and adolescents with regard to online game activities. Also, we ascertained the significant generation gap in the perception on parent-adolescent relationship with regard to online game activities. This result implies that parent-adolescent relationship in the developmental process of adolescents in real life was reflected in the perception on parent-adolescent relationship with regard to online game activities. Our contributions are in specifying the generation gap in the sub-dimensions of the perceptions on online games and in identifying the main causes of the conflict between parents group and adolescent group with regard to online game activities.