The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of Subject-Centerd Nature Walking program on the 2 year-old infant's stress and pro-social behaviors in order to provide the basic information that helps teachers develop appropriate Nature Walking p...
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of Subject-Centerd Nature Walking program on the 2 year-old infant's stress and pro-social behaviors in order to provide the basic information that helps teachers develop appropriate Nature Walking program from new understanding and perspectives about walking program for better quality of infant care and education.
The subjects of this study were 14 infants aged 2 in the experimental group from the N nursery and 14 infants in J nursery for the comparison group, located in Hwasung, Kyungi-province.
For assessing the infant's stress behavior, CCSBI (Classroom Child Stress Behavior Instrument) was used. That was made by Burts, Hart, Charles Worth and Kirk(1990) but Heejung Go(1998) revised it by selecting items for indoor free play activities. For pro-social behavior, Teachers Skill Checklist by McGinnis and Goldstein(1990) was used.
Pre-test and post-test were carried out. The Subject-Centered Nature Walking program was operated for the experiment group of infants while outdoor activities at the playground was operated for the comparison group of infants. Means and standard deviation were calculated and for the test of group difference, t-test was conducted.
The results of this study are summarized as followings:
First, the Subject-Centered Nature Walking program gave a positive impact by decreasing the stress behavior of infants aged 2.
Second, the Subject-Centered Nature Walking program gave a positive impact by increasing the pro-social behaviors of infants aged 2.
In conclusion, the Subject-Centerd Nature Walking program was effective on the 2 year-old infant's stress and pro-social behaviors. It is hoped that various walking programs for infants will be developed and applied to infant and child education effectively.