This Study purposed to examine how the emotional expression of parents influences on the children's self-control ability and self-esteem, recognize the importance of the parents' role related to the emotional expression, and present the empirical data...
This Study purposed to examine how the emotional expression of parents influences on the children's self-control ability and self-esteem, recognize the importance of the parents' role related to the emotional expression, and present the empirical data needed for the improvement of parents' role.
This Study surveyed 492 elementary school students of the fifth to the sixth grade in Kyeonggi-do area - 195 male students (54.5%) and 163 female ones (45.5%). The measure of the emotional expression of parents was "Questionnaire of Self-expression at Home", which was developped by Halberstadt, Cassidy, Stifter, Parke and Fox (1995) and modified by Han Yeong-min (2005). The 40-item included 23-item for positive emotional expression and 17-item for negative emotional expression the negative. The measure of self-control ability was SCRS (Self-Control Rating Scale), which Kendall and Wilcox (1979) developed aiming at children and Kim Mun-shin (2002) reconstructed to be a self-report style measure for children. The scale consists of 33-item. The measure of self-esteem was developed by Rosenberg (1979) and tested by Yun Yeo-jeong (2007). The scale consists of 10-item. The above three measures are Likert-type of 5 points, respectively. The more the score, the higher the degree of measure. The method of data analysis was used by SPSS 15.0 program. Frequency, percentage, Cronbach's α coefficient, t-test, simple correlation analysis of Pearson, and hierarchial multiple-regression analysis were carried out.
The results of this Study were as follows : First, the levels of the positive emotional expression of parents (M=3.56, SD=.62 in fathers, and M=3.94, SD=.59 in mothers), the self-control ability of children (M=3.34, SD=.39), and the self-esteem of children (M=3.30, SD=.55) showed the above the average of scale, respectively. But, the negative emotional expression of parents (M=2.22, SD=.59 in father and M=2.16, SD=.63 in mother) showed the below the average of scale. Second, with the control of relative influences that the demographic variable and the emotional expression of parents gave to the children's self-control ability, the parents, positive emotional expression (β=.19, t<.01) in fathers(β=.15, t<.01 in mothers) and the mother's negative emotional expression (β=-.19, t<.01) showed independent inflences, respectely. Whereas, the father's negative emotional expression didn't relatively show the independent influence. An explanatory power of variables was 22%. Third, with the control of the relative influences that the demographic variable and the emotional expression of parents gave to the children's self-esteem, only the father's positive emotional expression (β=.28, t<.001) showed the positive influence independently, whereas, the other variables did not show the independent influences. The explanatory power of variables was 15%.
According to the result of this study, the parents' positive emotional expression, especially the father's positive emotional expression, gave relatively an important influence to the children's self-control ability and self-esteem. Considering that especially men have been influenced to control the emotional expression under the value of confucian culture, the result of this study showed that we need to promote fathers to do the positive emotional expression. Accordingly, we need to develop more concrete and practical education program for parents and family life education program for parents, positive emotional expression.