The purpose of this study was to examine the differences of playfulness by gender, the differences of peer competence in accordance with gender, the relationship between playfulness and peer competence, and the gender differences in the relationship b...
The purpose of this study was to examine the differences of playfulness by gender, the differences of peer competence in accordance with gender, the relationship between playfulness and peer competence, and the gender differences in the relationship between playfulness and peer competence of 4 years old. The subjects of this study were 193 boys and 200 girls with a total of 393 children. They were living in Taegu and going to kindergarten or child care center. To measure the children's playfulness, the Kim's(2001) revision of Barnett's(1991) Children's Palyfulness Scale(CPS) was used. And as a measure of peer competence, the Peer Competence Scale(Park & Lee, 2001) was used. The analyses of data were done with mean, standard deviation, and t-test, Pearson correlation and z-test.
The findings of this study were as follows:
First, there were no significant gender differences in children's playfulness. But girls were significantly higher than boys in the cognitive spontaneity, a subarea of playfulness. Secondly, there were significant gender differences in peer competence. And girls were significantly higher than boys in the leadership, a subarea of peer competence. Thirdly, there were significantly positive relationship between young children's playfulness and peer competence. And there found gender significant differences in the relationship between young children's playfulness and peer competence.