To date, there has been little research on the factors affecting meritocratic attitudes among
adolescents. Drawing on public opinion data on Korean adolescents’ perception of the socially
disadvantaged collected in 2015 by the SSK Cultural Diversity and Coexistence Research Team,
we investigated the structural relationships between the variables influencing meritocratic
attitudes among middle and high school students in Korea using structural equation modeling.
We also examined how the structural relationships vary by the level of school using
multi-group analysis. The results revealed that adolescents’ household income and perceived
future prospects wielded a significant direct effect on their meritocratic attitudes. However,
parental education, subjective class identification, and academic achievement had little to do
with adolescents’ meritocratic attitudes. Also, it was discovered that adolescents’ subjective class
identification is closely associated with their academic achievement and perceived future
prospects. In addition, adolescents’ academic achievement exerted a significant positive effect on
their perceived future prospects. Finally, the results from multi-group analysis exhibited that
some discernible differences in the structural relationships exist by the level of school. We
discussed briefly based on the major findings implications that can shed some light on the
causes of the prevalence of rigid meritocratic practices in schools in Korea.