The Effect of Horticultural Activity Experience in Childhood on Bioethics of University Students

Abstract

Background and objective: The experience of caring for plants through horticultural activity makes life valuable and precious. This study was conducted to find out the relationship between horticultural activity experience in childhood and the bioethics of university students.Methods: 159 university students living in Seoul and the metropolitan area were surveyed on general matters, horticultural activity experience, and bioethics. The collected data were analyzed by conducting descriptive analysis on general characteristics and horticultural activity experience using SAS 9.4, and the Mann Whitney U and KrusKal-Wallis Test, as well as Dunn post-hoc test for Kruskal-Wallis were conducted to determine the difference in bioethics depending on horticultural activity experience.Results: First, there was no significant difference in bioethics scores depending on horticultural activity experience in childhood. Second, for type of horticultural activity experience, the bioethics scores of the group that had 'solo experience' of horticultural activity were significantly higher than the other two groups (<i>p</i> < .01). Third, for duration of horticultural activity experience, the bioethics scores showed significant results in the subjects with less than 1 year of solo experience compared to those with less than 1 year of group experience and with at least 1 year of group experience (<i>p</i> < .05). Fourth, as a result of examining the type of plants experienced by the group with less than 1 year of solo experience, vegetables and cacti and succulents accounted for 46.7%. For the type of activity, sowing accounted for the highest ratio (80%), followed by planting seedlings (13.3%) and repotting (6.7%).Conclusion: As a result of examining the relationship between horticultural activity experience in childhood and bioethics of university students, it was found that those with solo experience had higher bioethics than those with group experience, and those who had less than 1 year of experience had higher bioethics than those who had at least 1 year of experience. As for the type of plant and activity experienced by the subjects, the highest ratio was found in vegetables.