This study was to analyze how effectively parent-child communication pattern perceived by middle school students and peer relationship predict self-efficacy, in order to provide basic data to help young adolescents maintain healthy school lives and in...
This study was to analyze how effectively parent-child communication pattern perceived by middle school students and peer relationship predict self-efficacy, in order to provide basic data to help young adolescents maintain healthy school lives and interpersonal relationships. In this study, 288 students were selected from 2 middle schools in Changwon and Kimhae City as participants to measure parent-child communication pattern perceived by middle school students, peer relationship, and self-efficacy, and the results were analyzed by t-test, correlation analysis, and phased multi-regression analysis.
Specific research questions are as follows: First, is there any difference in parent-child communication pattern, peer relationship, and self-efficacy by gender? Second, is there any correlation among parent-child communication pattern, peer relationship, and self-efficacy by gender? Third, what effects do parent-child communication pattern and peer relationship have on self-efficacy of middle school students?
Major results of this study are summarized below. First, in terms of differences by gender, girls were found to have more intimate and open, positive functional communication with their parents, compared with boys who have a judgment-based communication with their parents as the reverse negative functional communication. Similarly, in peer relationship, female students were found to be higher in social support and intimacy of peer group than male students, while confrontation with peers was higher for male students, which indicates that the pattern of peer relationship of male students is improper, compared to their female counterparts. Self-confidence of self-efficacy was found higher in male students than in female students.
Second, as for correlation between individual variables, parent-child positive functional communication was found to have significant correlations with self-efficacy of students, and with social support, intimacy, and friendship of peer relationship, which implies that open and intimate communication with parents has a positive relationship with self-efficacy of students and peer relationship. Besides, there were statistically positive correlations between social support, intimacy, and friendship of peer relationship and self-efficacy of students.
Third, parent-child communication and peer relationship had significant effects on self-efficacy of students, with social support of peer group having the greatest effect on self-efficacy. In addition, the positive functional communication with mother had a significant effect on self-efficacy of students, while the reverse functional communication with father had a negative effect on it. In conclusion, these results indicate that social support of peer group plays the most important role in improving self-efficacy of middle school students who are at the early stage of the adolescent period.