By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter

Korean teenagers are the least happiest among their peers in Japan and China, a state-run institute said Thursday.

They have less satisfaction for their present or past and less expectation for the future compared, said Lee Chang-ho, a researcher at the National Youth Policy Institute.

``Life seems quite tough for Korean teenagers. On top of the burden of studying, the economy and many other social factors have changed their perspective on marriage and other things in life,'' Lee said. ``Still they strongly hold onto some traditional values.''

According to the survey of 2,000 middle and high school students from each of the three countries between November to December last year, Chinese teens generally expressed contentment in their life. They scored top in all three categories asking about their satisfaction about the past, present and future, making a composite happiness index of 79 while Koreans marked 61.6 and Japanese 69.

Korean teens value money more than reputation or academic career, and tend to look up to rich people the most. About 92 percent said money was most important and four out of 10 said the rich were to be admired.
``It seems that Korean society weighs wealth as the most important factor above anything else,'' Lee said. Chinese teens valued an academic career the most.

Still, Korean teens have more filial feelings toward their parents. About 66 percent said they were willing to live with and support their parents after they were married, compared to 37.2 percent and 25.2 percent for Chinese and Japanese. Korean teens said it was the children's responsibility to take care of their ``old and sick'' parents.

Family means a lot. Koreans have the most conversations with their families and are more open to respecting the father figure inside the family. Korean teens usually talk about their studies or future job selection mostly with their mothers.

Koreans were quite positive about getting married, too. They said they want an average of two children ― daughters over sons.

bjs@koreatimes.co.kr