The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among fifth graders' empathy, peer relationship, and self-regulation. In order to accomplish this purpose, the research questions were established as follows: First, what kind of relations...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among fifth graders' empathy, peer relationship, and self-regulation. In order to accomplish this purpose, the research questions were established as follows: First, what kind of relationship is there between fifth graders' empathy and peer relationship? Second, what kind of relationship is there between their empathy and self-regulation? And finally, what kind of relationship is there between peer relationship and self-regulation?
In order to verify those research questions, a preliminary study was conducted with 34 fifth graders in an elementary school in Namyangju City, Gyeonggi Province. Then the questionnaire was revised and supplemented by the advice of the supervisor. The empathy, peer relationship, and self-regulation three inventories were administered to the fifth graders in the elementary school that the investigator was working for. After excluding the questionnaires of those who were absent from school due to the new influenza during the research period and whose answers were missing or insincere, a total of 105 children were statistically analyzed. The data were analyzed with correlation analysis to examine relationships among empathy, peer relationship, and self-regulation, and then to performed t-tests to examine gender difference.
The research findings can be summarized as follows: First, there were significant positive relationships between the fifth graders' empathy and peer relationship. When compared with the subelements, the most significant correlation was found between personal pain of empathy and existence or nonexistence of friends and reliability of peer relationship. However, there was no significant correlation between imagination of empathy and adaptation among peer relationship. Secondly, there were positive correlation between the subjects' empathy and self-regulation. When compared with the subelements, imagination of empathy was the most significantly correlated with cognition of self-regulation but was not significantly correlated with behavior of self-regulation. And finally, there were significant correlations between the children's peer relationship and self-regulation. When compared with the subelements, there was the highest correlation between existence or nonexistence of friends and reliability of peer relationship and cognition of self-regulation. However, there was no significant correlation between adaptation among friends of peer relationship and self-regulation. As for differences according to gender, girls were higher in empathy and peer relationship than boys, however, there was no significant difference in self-regulation between girls and boys. The findings show that there were significant relationships among the fifth graders' empathy, peer relationship, and self-regulation and that there were significant differences in empathy and peer relationship according to gender.
The following suggestions were made regarding the utilization of those findings and follow-up researches: First, it is required to develop field-oriented, standardized tools to measure empathy, peer relationship, and self-regulation fit for the cultural conditions of elementary school children in Korea. Second, children of many different regions should be included for broader researchers and higher external validity. Third, basic data should be provided for programs to help children develop empathy so that they can improve their peer relationships and self-regulation. And finally, differences among various grades and among elementary, middle and high school should be compared and studied to provide the teachers with counseling data helpful for student guidance.