Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of two “early developmental period” factors on the current basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) and compare the results cross-nationally between China, Korea and Japan. Two “early developmental period” factors are family relationship and self-determinative behavior. Questionnaire research was conducted. Research participants were Chinese, Korea and Japanese university students (N=631). Results of cross-national comparison revealed that 1) Japanese families are less cohesive than Korean and Chinese families, 2)Chinese behave in less self-determinatively than Koreans and Japanese, and 3)Koreans have higher basic psychological needs than Chinese and Japanese. Next, we examined the effect of cohesion and self-determinative behaviors on basic psychological needs for each early developmental period. We also examined the cross-national difference of the results. This study found that 1) for Japanese, cohesion among family members is more linked with relatedness than Chinese and Koreans, 2) for Koreans, the current basic psychological needs are related with cohesion among family members at elementary school age and self-determinative behaviors at both junior high school and high school age, 3) only for Chinese, competence is associated with cohesion among family members and self-determinative behaviors. This study shows the cross-national differences for family cohesion, self-determinative behaviors, and basic psychological needs among three Far East countries.
