This study is to find out which type of school is more effective for students to develop their empathy and social competences through comparing and analyzing young students\' level of empathy and social competences by their school types. To achieve this purpose, the comparative analysis between those middle school students who attend schools for both sexes and those who attend non-coeducational schools on their level of empathy and social competences. A questionnaire survey was conducted, on total of 224 Second Year Middle School Students in Seoul, including 103 students attending coeducational schools and 121 students attending non-coeducational schools, to analyze students\' level of empathy and social competences.
The results are as follows;
1. There were differences in the level of students\' empathy. As a whole, coeducational school students showed higher level of sympathy than those who attend non-coeducational schools (coeducational M=32.62, non-coeducational M=30.84). In case of male students the results are noticeable as those who attend coeducation school students (M=33.91) showed more marks than those non-coeducational school students (M=32.62). In case of female students the results are those who attend non-coeducation school students (M=34.91) showed more marks than those coeducational school students (M=33.48).
2. As results of the comparative analysis on their social competences by school types, there were little differences due to the minor factors but did not show meaningful statistical figures (coeducational M153.65, non-coeducational M=156.40, p>. 05).
In case of male students, excluding the personal relation adaptability rest of the areas of minor factors (such as sociability, ability to participate, leadership and degrees of popularity) showed the coeducational schools marked higher than the non-coeducational school students. In case of female students, coeducational school students showed higher marks in the areas of sociability, ability to participate, and personal relation adaptability, while non-coeducational students marked higher in the areas of degrees of popularity and leadership, but those as for each group, the results had fail to provide meaningful figures.
The adolescent period is the times when deliberate efforts are made for positioning or repositioning identity through their previous experiences and plan their parts of the futures. It is also important to construct their self-identity, as well as to accept new environment and culture during that period. Through natural interactions between two sexes, joining and modeling social and cultural characteristics, their understanding of social relation, obligation, and right as well as understanding and consideration of cultural ability are to come out of the fixed idea, learning about advantages of both male and female while developing common and unselfishness of social ability will provide appropriate school environment.