The main purpose of the study was to investigate the structural relationships between college student''s altruistic behavior and its related variables such as moral identity, character strengths-humanity, family strenghts, and moral elevation. To achieve this purpose, the research questions were established as follows;
First, what are the structural relationships among moral identity, character strengths-humanity, family strengths, moral elevation and altruistic behavior of college students?
Second, are there any differences between male college students and female college students in structural relationships between moral identity, character strengths-humanity, family strengths, moral elevation and altruistic behavior?
To solve the research questions, total 647 college students(male, 312; female, 335) in Cheongju were sampled. Five different scales to measure moral identity, character strengths-humanity, family strengths, moral elevation and altruistic behavior were used. The collected data were analyzed by Structural Equation Modeling(SEM) using Amos18.0.
Based on the previous research and theoretical considerations, this study proposed the research model and the competition model. The research model was partial mediation model in which moral identity, character strengths-humanity, family strengths have direct effects and also have indirect effects mediated through moral elevation. The competition model was fully mediation model in which moral identity, character strengths-humanity, family strengths have direct effects through moral elevation. The final model was analyzed using total data. For the second research question, the gender differences of structural weights in the final model were examined through multiple group analysis.
The major results of the study were as follows;
First, the results of the study showed that moral identity has a direct effect on moral elevation, but moral identity has no direct effect on altruistic behavior. Moral identity has an indirect effect on altruistic behavior through moral elevation. It was found that character strengths-humanity has direct effect on moral elevation and altruistic behavior. Character strengths-humanity has an indirect effect on altruistic behavior through moral elevation. In addition, family strengths has no direct effect on altruistic behavior and indirect effect on altruistic behavior through moral elevation. And it was found moral elevation has a direct effect on altruistic behavior.
Second, the results of the study showed that there was a significant gender difference in the structural weights of character strengths-humanity and moral elevation. Concretely, the structural weights of female students was significantly higher than that of male students.
The results of this study would be not only to help establish the theoretical basis on the essence and characteristics of altruistic behavior and morality, but also to develop the program and the more effective strategy of education to promote altruistic behavior.