The current research is aimed at exploring factors in students and schools that have influenced
the social capability of elementary students, using data sets from KEDI's elementary school
survey (Im et al., 2011). The research subjects were 12,242 6th graders in 250 elementary schools
nationwide. The data was analyzed with a 2-level Hierarchical Linear Modeling; The 1st
level(individual student) included gender, academic achievement scores in the 5th grade, character,
volunteer service experiences and bully victimization experiences; The 2nd level (school) consisted
of the learning culture of competition or cooperation, school location, percentage of students with
education financial support, school violence indicators (i.e. percentage of bully perpetrators). The
result showed that elementary students were likely to be more socially capable if they are female,
have high levels of academic achievement, character, volunteering services. However, students
victimized by peers had lower levels of social capability. After controlling for individual students'
variables, students were more socially capable if they attended schools with higher levels of
competitive and cooperative learning culture, lower levels of bully perpetrators, and schools located
in metropolitan cities. These research findings showed that students' social capability can be
influenced by school culture and violence levels as well as students' attributes and social
experiences. The current results can be used for the development of educational policy for school
culture reforms and violence reduction.