The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences in young children's self-concept by parenting attitudes and fathering role practices of their fathers. The subjects of this study were sampled from 8 kindergartens which were composed of tw...
The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences in young children's self-concept by parenting attitudes and fathering role practices of their fathers. The subjects of this study were sampled from 8 kindergartens which were composed of two kindergartens in Tongbu, Seobu, Nambu, and Talsung District Office of Education in Daegu respectively. Fifty questionnaires were distributed to the 8 respective kindergartens in each district. And the final subjects for data analysis were 259 of 400 questionnaires. The rate of return was 64.75 percents. In terms of the parenting attitudes and fathering role practices, fathers selected within the top twenty percent and the bottom twenty percent. The group of fathers in the top twenty percent of parenting attitude was categorized for affectionate-autonomous group. The group of fathers in the bottom twenty percent of parenting attitude was categorized for rejective-controlling group. The tool of the study was MBRI(Maternal Behavior Research Instrument, by Schaefer), which was adapted by Lee(1983). The tools of self-concept were FPS(Fathering Practice Scale, by Canfield, 1995) and "I feel, me feel"(Bentley & Yeatts, 1974), which were adapted by Lim(1995). The data were analyzed by t-test using SPSS program.
The findings are as follows:
First, children's self-concept in the affectionate-autonomous group was significantly higher than that of children in the rejective-controlling group in cognitive, emotion, social, and physical concept and meta concept. Second, the children's self-concept in the top twenty percent of fathering role practices was significantly higher than that in the bottom twenty percent in cognitive, emotion, social, and physical concept and meta concept.
The results show that fathers are a key variable for self-concept of their young children. Thus it is suggested that education for parents should be administered to fathers on parenting their young children in order to promote father's parenting attitudes and fathering role practices.