The purpose of the present study is to find about if there is any difference in peer relations and social skills & school life adaptation according to socio-demographic factors with the subject of fifth- and sixth grades children of a elementary schoo...
The purpose of the present study is to find about if there is any difference in peer relations and social skills & school life adaptation according to socio-demographic factors with the subject of fifth- and sixth grades children of a elementary schools. And to give a help for development of a program that can improve social skills to enhance children's school life adaptation and maintain friendly peer relations by understanding the correlation between them.
The total of 544 children composed of 284 boys and 260 girls of 4 elementary schools in the Jeju region was selected as an object of study to achieve the research purpose.
The scale of peer relations, the scale of social skill evaluation and the scale of school life adaptation were used as a measuring tool. And t-test and ANOVA were carried out to examine the difference in peer relations and social skills & school life adaptation according to socio-demographic factors of children and the correlation analysis of Pearson was carried out to find out these relationships.
The major analysis results of the present study are as follows.
First, as a result of examining differences of peer relations according to the gender of children, there was no difference in conflict among 5 subordinate domains of peer relations. But it appeared that there is a significant difference in help, exclusiveness, recognition and self-expression.
It means that girls positively interact with other persons in peer relations than boys and has high recognition attitude and a high reception degree between each other. And, if the difference of peer relations according to the school year is examined, it appeared that there is a significant difference in self-expression among subordinate domains of peer relations.
It means that sixth grade children have a higher self-expression degree than fifth grade children. If the difference of peer relations according to have or have not a multicultural friends was examined, it appeared that there is a significant difference in recognition among subordinate domains of peer relations. Namely, it means that children having multicultural friends have high recognition and a high reception degree between each other in peer relations.
The difference of peer relations according to the number of close friends was examined, it appeared that there is a significant difference in help, recognition and conflict among subordinate domains of peer relations. It can be understood that children recognizing that there are close friends have a higher help degree between peers, admit/accept better and a lower conflict degree than children recognizing that there are no close friends.
Second, as a result of examining difference of social skills according to the gender of children, it appeared that there was no difference in self-control among 4 subordinate domains of social skills, but there is a significant difference in cooperativity, assertation and sympathy.
Namely, it means that girls have higher social skills, which give a help, assert thinking and opinion of their own and understand & sympathize with other people, than boys . But if the difference of social skills according to the school year was examined, it appeared that there is no significant difference in all subordinate domains of social skills.
Also, as a result of examining difference of social skills according to have or have not a multicultural friends, it appeared that there was a significant difference in all subordinate domains of social skills.
Namely, it can be understood that children having multicultural friends cooperate better between each other, assert his or her thinking better, has a higher degree of understanding and acception of other people and control their own feelings better than children without having multicultural friends.
The difference of social skills according to the number of close friends was examined, it appeared that there is a significant difference in all subordinate domains of social skills. It can be understood that children recognizing that there are close friends have a higher help degree and assertation between peers, sympathize feeling & emotion of other people better and have a higher self-control degree under the conflict circumstances than children recognizing that there are no close friends.
Third, as a result of examining difference of school life adaptation according to the gender of children, there was no difference in adaptation to school study among 4 subordinate domains of school life adaptation, but it appeared that there is a significant difference in adaptation to a classroom teacher, adaptation to school friends and adaptation to school rules.
The difference of school life adaptation according to the school year was examined, it appeared that there is a significant difference in adaptation to school study and adaptation to school rules among of subordinate domains of school life adaptation. It can be known that fifth-year children of a primary school have higher adoptability to school study and rules than sixth-year children.
The difference of school life adaptation according to existence or nonexistence of multicultural friends was examined, it appeared that there is a significant difference in adaptation to school friends and adaptation to school rules among subordinate domains of school life adaptation.
Children having multicultural friends have better relations with school friends, higher adaptation to friends and better adaptation to school rules than children without having multicultural friends. The difference of school life adaptation according to the number of close friends was examined, it appeared that there is a significant difference in all subordinate domains of school life adaptation.
Children recognizing that there are close friends have better relations with a classroom teacher and school friends, have better class attitude or learning degree, observe school rules better and adapt better than children recognizing that there are no close friends.
Fourth, the correlation of between peer relations, social skills and school life adaptation all showed static correlation. It can be understood that children having good social skills well interact with surrounding environment of their own, form smooth relations with other people and adapt to school life well.
In conclusion, as a result of examining about peer relations, social skills and school life adaptation with the subject of fifth and sixth graders of a primary school, it shows significant correlation each other.
Children need proper social skills that can react to various circumstances or the surrounding environment effectively so as to form positive relationship with other people as a member of the society, and this would become an important key point for forming peer relations.