Abstract
The purpose of this study is to explore cultural factors that affect food consumption patterns by comparing them for college students in Korea and China. This study includes seeking pleasure, seeking satiety, and seeking well-being. Food consumption patterns, social responsibility, the value of life, faith in God, traditional moral fundamentalism and cultural taste are the cultural factors. To achieve the purpose, SPSS Win.(12.0) and LISREL(8.72) are applied. From the results of this study, first, among food consumption patterns, Koreans and Chinese both are found to put a higher value on seeking pleasure than other consumption patterns, and Chinese are found to put a higher value on seeking satiety. Second, for Koreans, the value of traditional moral fundamentalism and social responsibility are found to significantly influence seeking satiety and seeking well-being. If they had a higher degree of traditional moral fundamentalism, they would like to seek more satiety from food. And if they had a higher degree of social responsibility, they would like to seek more well-being from food. However, for Chinese, seeking pleasure is found to be significantly influenced by social responsibility and a faith in God, and seeking satiety is found to be significantly influenced by social responsibility and the value of a good life while seeking well-being is found to be significantly influenced by social responsibility and a faith in God. Compared with Koreans, cultural factors such as social responsibility, a faith in God, the value of a good life for the Chinese might influence significantly all three types of food consumption patterns. Thus, this study might provide more useful information about finding cultural differences of values and food consumption patterns between Koreans and Chinese.
