Contents Analysis of Meaning in Life of Higher Grade Elementary School Students

Kim, Shin Jeong; Kang, Kyung Ah; Bang, Kyung Mi

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to explore and understand life and meaning in life of elementary school students.
METHODS
Data from 1,790 higher grade elementary school students were analyzed for content of meaning in life.
RESULTS
The students described the following: 1) Meanings of living existence included, 'living things', 'importance', 'human life', 'family', 'event', 'eternity', 'origin of life', 'disease', and, 'protection'. 2) Four categories were found for reasons why human life is important, 'solitary', 'limitation', 'valuables', and 'living'. 3) Things that one can do to protect the value of human life were, 'doing safely', 'keep things well', 'altruistic behavior', 'doing sound activity', 'preservation & development', and 'devotion of oneself'. 4) Meaning of life included 'to accomplish plans', and 'to do things' 5) Cases when students felt life had meaning were 'perform meaningful behavior', 'comfortable emotionally', and 'receiving help from others'. 6) The methods by which to live a meaningful life were 'working diligently', 'serving', and 'doing rightly'.
CONCLUSION
These results suggest that students recognize the meaning of life in a most positive way and with a relatively wide scope, but as a few students had a negative orientation, age-appropriate and more systematic education programs are needed.