Kinship and Inter-Status Group Relationship : A Comparsion between Korea and U.S.

Abstract

The openness of social strcuture is one of the central topics in the study of social stratification. This study focuses on the significance of education in social relationship. Based on comparable data from Korea and United States, this study shows that the highest degree earned works as a significant sign of attractiveness of an individual for social interaction. The restricted latent class model reveals that there are three status groups determnied by the possession of two certifications in both countries. The results also show that the relationship with non-kin alters among Koreans is more homogeneous in terms of educational attainment. The difference of educational attainment across cohorts does not fully explain this homogeneity. The implications of these findings will be discussed.