The purposes of this study was to investigate how children's playfulness and social competence appear and to find out what the relationship between children's playfulness and social competence.
For the purposes, following research questions were set u...
The purposes of this study was to investigate how children's playfulness and social competence appear and to find out what the relationship between children's playfulness and social competence.
For the purposes, following research questions were set up:
1. How does children's playfulness appear?
2. How does social competence appear?
3. What is the relationship between children's playfulness and social competence?81
The subjects of this study were 358 children(181 boys and 177 girls) attending 13 public kindergartens in Daejeon, Korea. The average age of them was six years and two months(both the boys and the girls were six years and two months old).
The "Children's Playfulness Scale(CPS)"(Kim, 2001) was used to measure young children's playfulness. It was developed by Barnett(1991) and Korean-translated by You(1994) and modified by Kim(2001) was used to measure young children's playfulness. The "Social Competence Rating Scale for Young Children"(Lee, 2005) excepted 1 item and that used for measuring young children's social competence.
For the collected data, the means and standard deviation of children's playfulness and social competence. The Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to the relationship between children's playfulness and social competence, and a multiple regression analysis was used for the statistical analysis.
Results of this study were as follows:
First, the mean score of children's playfulness was 3.60: It indicates a medial value between the 3 point of 「That is an average」and the 4 point of「That is often」.
Second, the mean score of social competence was 3.86: It indicates social competence is closer to the 4 point of「That is some right」than the 3 point of 「That is an average」.
Third, the relationship children's playfulness and social competence indicates significant correlations, p< .01. The social spontaneity of children's playfulness's sub-factor and peer relations skill of social competence's sub-factor were a high significant correlations, p< .01.
To analysis how explain the sub-factors of children's playfulness for the social competence were, the social spontaneity of children's playfulness's sub-factor indicates 38.0% of the social competence and 44.2% with the physical spontaneity included.
To analysis how explain the sub-factors of children's playfulness for the social competence were, the social spontaneity of children's playfulness's sub-factor indicates 16.6% of regulation of emotion, and 29.7% with the physical spontaneity included, and 30.8% with humor sense included. The social spontaneity of children's playfulness's sub-factor indicates 15.3% of emotionality, and 20.6% with the physical spontaneity included. The social spontaneity of children's playfulness's sub-factor indicates 56.4% of peer relations skill, and 58.6% with the cognitive spontaneity included, and 59.1% with the physical spontaneity included. The social spontaneity of children's playfulness's sub-factor indicates 27.8% of the comprehension of social rule, and 34.6% with the physical spontaneity included, and 36.0% with the humor sense, and 37.6% with the cognitive spontaneity included.