“Review of Related Literature”

*Most students and even parents will argue that school uniforms stifle
individualism. The teenage years are a time when adolescents try out different
personas, often experimenting with different styles of clothing during this phase.
Opponents argue that uniforms take away an individual’s freedom of
expression. However, the clothes that people wear, or can afford to wear, often define
the group by which they are accepted. As a result, many teens are outcast due to the
fact that they cannot afford the top-of-the-line, name-brand clothing. This rejection can
lead to several problems for the outcast teen: depression, inability to concentrate on
schoolwork, or just a general feeling of inferiority. School uniforms put everyone on the
same level because no outfit is more stylish or expensive than another. Linda Moore,
principal at Will Rogers Middle School in Long Beach, California, states, “Uniforms
reduce the differences between the haves and have-nots” (Ritter, 1). Uniforms allow
students to interact with one another without experiencing the socioeconomic barrier
that non-uniform schools create. More importantly, children are not judged on how
much they spent on clothes or how stylish they look, but rather for their talents and
personalities.

*Many families worry about not having enough money to buy uniforms. Due
to the fact that no child can be denied an education because of economic disadvantage,
all schools requiring uniforms must include provisions to assist low-income families. For
example, the Long Beach School District solved this problem by setting up a boutique
shop, funded by private donors, where needy students can shop (Paliokas, 5). In
addition, community and business leaders provide or contribute financial support for
uniforms, and students who have graduated often donate their used uniforms to
incoming students (Manual, 3). However, uniforms are considerably cheaper to buy
than non-uniform clothes, and the students can wear them every day and it isn’t
considered unusual. Parents can buy a few pairs of pants, shirts, or other variations of a
uniform for under $100, while parents of non-uniform-wearing students can spend from
several hundreds up to $1,000 a year on clothing. Parents find that buying two or three
uniforms is ultimately cheaper than buying clothes to follow the fads, and it stops
arguments at home in the mornings about what to wear (Oland, 1).

*The purpose of this study was to examine the differences of the satisfaction with school
uniforms according to demographic variables and to investigate the causal relations of parental control,
school life satisfaction, and demographic variables to the satisfaction with school uniform. The research
method was a survey method using a questionnaire. The subjects were 407 high school students (191
male, and 216 female) residing in Seoul and the suburbs of Seoul. Students were very satisfied with the
convenience of not having to choose what to wear every morning, but the satisfactions with uniform
cost and design were lower. The aesthetic, psychological, and status symbol satisfaction of school
uniforms were higher as parents and adolescents had more communication, and the psychological and
status symbol satisfaction of school uniforms were higher as the level of parental supervision for
adolescents was higher. The female students had higher psychological satisfaction with school uniforms
than the male students were. The aesthetic satisfaction of school uniforms was lower as mother's
education level was higher. The adolescents from upper class families had lower aesthetic,
psychological, and status symbol satisfaction with school uniforms than the adolescents from middle
and lower class families. The satisfaction with school uniform was influenced by school life satisfaction
the most, and the next in the order by grade (-), the social class (-), and the communication with
parents. The factors that influenced school life satisfaction for students were parental supervision,
school records, the discipline consistency of parents, and their communication with their parents.
Therefore, the 4 variables had indirect effect on the satisfaction with school uniform through school life
satisfaction.

*According to Stanley (1996, p. 424), “school uniforms are one of the several
strategies used by public schools to restore order in classroom and safety in the
schools”. Bodine (2003a) established a positive correlation between uniforms and
academic achievement, and Brunsma and Rockquemore (1998) found a significantly better
achievement for students wearing uniforms in contrast to students not wearing a uniform at
the p < 0.01 level. Bodine (2003b) further linked school uniforms to egalitarianism, reduced
violence and reducing family stress (e.g. easy to get ready for school, more affordable than
fashion clothes, no debate with parents about what to wear for school).

*All up, the literature provides us with good evidence that a uniform is indeed a
contributing factor to better school discipline, but no empirical research to date has probed
this hypothesis on a more refined measurement of discipline as we offer in our study. In
essence then, we argue that uniforms contribute to a more formal learning environment, a
clearer and more visual distinction between teachers and students, and ultimately a better
focus on the actual learning (i.e. reduced disturbances due to stricter discipline allows a
more refined focus on actual teaching and learning).