The effects of a reading buddy program between young children and elementary students on their prosocial behavior and linguistic comprehension were examined in this study. The subjects of this study were 34 third grade students in an elementary school...
The effects of a reading buddy program between young children and elementary students on their prosocial behavior and linguistic comprehension were examined in this study. The subjects of this study were 34 third grade students in an elementary school and 36 4- and 5-year-old children in D city in two public kindergartens. To measure the prosocial behavior, the Positive Behavior Support for Young Children (PBSYC) developed by Kim (2003) was used as it is for young children, and with modifications of some expressions for elementary students in consideration of their age level. The linguistic comprehension of young children was measured by Kang's (2010) test which modified Jang's (1981) test. For the measurement of the linguistic comprehension of elementary students, selected test items, considering difficulty level and discrimination power, from Song (2005) and Chung (2001) were used. Results were analyzed with the statistical software program, SPSS 12.0. To analyze the effects on the prosocial behavior, a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was done for total scores and an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) for post-test scores with pre-test scores as covariates for each sub-factor was conducted. For the linguistic comprehension, an ANCOVA was done for post-test scores with pre-test scores as covariates. The prosocial behavior of both young children and elementary students improved with the implementation of this reading buddy program. In terms of linguistic comprehension, there was no significant difference between the experimental group of young children who participated in the reading buddy program and the control group. But for the elementary students, the reading buddy program showed significant effects, compared to the control group. These results indicate that the reading buddy program has positive effects on the prosocial behavior of both young children and elementary students, but is more effective in improving the linguistic comprehension of older children.