This study examined the effects of child's attachment stability and maternal parenting on peer competence, investigating the difference in maternal parenting and peer competence according to attachment pattern through a survey of 83 young children age...
This study examined the effects of child's attachment stability and maternal parenting on peer competence, investigating the difference in maternal parenting and peer competence according to attachment pattern through a survey of 83 young children aged under 5 years in a public day care center in Seongbuk-gu and Jongno-gu, Seoul. The measuring instrument, which had been translated by Lee, Jin-suk (2001) from 'Attachment Story Completion (ASCT)' developed by Bretherton, Ridgeway and Cassidy (1990), was used to measure child's attachment. Also, in order to measure maternal parenting, a questionnaire, which was composed by Sang, Hyang-ja and Oh, Hwa-sim (1994), referring to Schaefer's Maternal Behavior Research Instrument (MBRI) (1959), was applied to the study. This questionnaire consisted of 4 subordinate factors such as affectionate attitude, rejective attitude, autonomy attitude and control attitude. In order to examine peer competence, peer competence scale, which contained 3 subordinate items including sociability, pro-sociality, initiative, developed by Park, Ju-hui and Lee, Eun-hye(2001) was used.
The paper was intended to offer fundamental data, which would be useful for childhood education and child-rearing, expanding the understanding of the essence and roles of attachment representation as a factor to connect child's experience of a mother with peer relationship, and explaining concrete factors to improve peer competence.
The study questions were as follows.
1. How is types of under five-year old child's attachment distributed according to ASCT?
2. Is there any difference in maternal parenting by child's attachment pattern?
3. Is there any difference in peer competence according to child's attachment pattern? 4. What effect will child's attachment stability and maternal parenting have on peer competence?
The results of the study were summarized as below.
First, the outcome of measuring child's attachment representation by ASCT showed that 69.9% of total children had stable attachment, but there was no significant difference in attachment pattern between the genders.
Second, researching into maternal parenting by child's attachment pattern explained that the mother of a child with stable attachment displayed affectionate and autonomy rearing attitude.
Third, in peer competence by child's attachment pattern, children with stable attachment was revealed to form and maintain more sociable and initiative peer relationship.
Fourth, the study finally examined the effects of child's attachment stability and maternal parenting on peer competence. It seemed that attachment stability significantly involved in the total scores and all the subordinate items of peer competence. In addition, it was found that mother's autonomy and affectionate attitude were the relevant variables to explain sociability, which was the subordinate variable of peer competence.
The results of the study implied that the mother of a child with stable attachment treated her child with affectionate and autonomy attitude. A child with stable attachment was sociable and pro-sociality, and had initiative peer relationship. Moreover, peer competence was more influenced by child's attachment stability to a mother than by maternal parenting.