Although the national academic achievement and material affluence of Korean adolescents, on average, have steadily increased, the life satisfaction of adolescents remains extremely low based on international comparison. Considering this inconsistency, this study examines how different the satisfaction in life among adolescents, and what relevant factors have decisive effects.
Using Korea Children and Youth Panel Survey (1st, 3rd and 4th Wave), this study investigates the effects of parenting attitudes on the self-esteem, learning motivation, and life satisfaction of adolescents. In addition, this study delves into the differences by household income groups and gender of adolescents. A total of 1,950 adolescents who lived with their parent(s) were included in the final analysis. Data was analyzed with frequency, factor analysis, reliability test, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe post-hoc test, Pearson’s correlation and structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis using SPSS 18.0 program and AMOS 18.0 program.

The results of this study can be summarized as follows:
First, the monitoring and affectionate attitudes of the parents were strongly effective both in direct and indirect influence on the self-esteem (self-worth as well as competence), learning motivation (achievement value as well as mastery goal orientation), and finally life satisfaction of adolescents.
Second, self-esteem, especially self-worth, was a significant intermediate variable. However, the low household income group showed very slight effect on competence.
Third, learning motivation was not shown to have any intermediate effect in the two groups, low household income as well as stable household income group. In adolescents from stable/high income households, however, self-worth appeared to have a relevant effect on learning motivation.
One of the key findings of this study was that the self-esteem and learning motivation in adolescents showed a huge difference according to their income levels. This study pointed out that the household income which guarantees reasonable standard of living is pivotal in certain level of self esteem and development of adolescents in general.
In conclusion, customized and specialized community programs for adolescents from lower income group have to be developed to support their self-esteem formation and further growth. More research using rigorous scales is needed to verify diversities of the life satisfaction of adolescents.