The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of story sharing using picture books about friendship on young children's concept of friendship and prosocial behavior. For that purpose, the following research questions were set:
1. What kind...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of story sharing using picture books about friendship on young children's concept of friendship and prosocial behavior. For that purpose, the following research questions were set:
1. What kind of influence does story sharing using picture books about friendship have on young children's concept of friendship?
2. What kind of influence does story sharing using picture books about friendship have on young children's prosocial behavior?
The subjects include 60 young children from two five-year-old classes at K Kindergarten located in Seongdong-gu, Seoul. They were divided into the experiment and control group. Employed in the study to examine the subjects' concept of friendship was the "Inventory on Young Children's Concept of Friendship," which was used by Furman and Bierman(1983) and revised by Park Hee-suk(1984), Lee Seon-hee(1985), Han Yeong-hee(1987) and Gil Hyeon-ju(2002). The young children's prosocial behavior was examined by the Inventory on Prosocial Behavior developed by Hwang Seon-hoi(1994) based on the researches of Barrett and Yarrow(1977), Kearney(1986), and Robertson(1981). The research of Kim Gyeong-eun(2010) was consulted to choose picture books about friendship, and the formation stages and roles of friendship were considered in the process. Using the selected picture books, the investigator applied story sharing using picture books about friendship to the experiment group. To test the research questions, t-test was conducted and analysis was carried out with the SPSS 18.0 statistics program.
The research findings were as follows: first, story sharing using picture books about friendship had positive impacts on the young children's concept of friendship. Participating in those activities, the experiment group made a significant increase in affection and assistance of the friendship concepts and significantly increased in the concept of physical characteristics compared to the control group. As a result, they gradually expanded from regarding a friend as someone that was physically similar to them or geographically close enough to hang out together to understanding a friend as someone to exchange mutual trust, assistance, and understanding with.
Secondly, story sharing using picture books about friendship had positive influences on the young children's prosocial behavior. Participating in those activities, the experiment group made a significant increase in help and contact of the subcategories of prosocial behavior compared to the control group.
In short, story sharing using picture books about friendship caused the young children to develop a concept of friendship and engage in more prosocial behavior, which implies a need for the teachers to provide young children with activities involving story sharing using picture books about friendship in school so that they can form positive relationships with their friends and consistently maintain and further develop friendship through prosocial behavior.