This research explores the relationships between parenting attitudes and children’s empathic ability and peer relationships. In addition, it tests whether children’s empathic ability plays the mediating role in parenting attitudes of their parents...
This research explores the relationships between parenting attitudes and children’s empathic ability and peer relationships. In addition, it tests whether children’s empathic ability plays the mediating role in parenting attitudes of their parents and the children’s peer relationships.
Against this backdrop, the author has conducted a survey on 543 elementary school students in 5th and 6th grades in Seoul. This paper adopts Kim Moon Joung’s (2003) indices for patenting attitude, which she has revised the measurement that Park Young Ae (1995) had invented for parental rearing behaviors for children. With regard to children’s empathic ability, this paper uses Kim Seong Eun’s (1997) work that adapted and revised Davis’ (1980) Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis 1980). In addition, the dissertation utilizes Yun Yeon Ki’s (2010) measure of peer relationships that he reframed the Peer Competence Index by Park Ju Hee and Lee Eun Hye’s (2001) for the purpose of research on upper-year elementary students.
The statistical programs SPSS and AMOS 18.0 have been used to analyze the collected data. The paper calculates frequency and percentage to examine children’s general attributes, and in order to verify the level of confidence of each measure this paper also compute Cronbach α coefficient. Furthermore, both correlation and regressional analysis are conducted to identify the causal mechanism among parenting attitude, children’s empathic capability and peer relationship. In order to investigate the mediating effect of children’s empathic ability in the relationship between their perception of parenting attitudes and peer relationship, this research performs structural equation modeling analysis through AMOS statistics package.
The following is the findings of this research:
First, when children perceive parental rearing attitudes as more ‘benevolent and receptive’, it plays positive impacts on the children’s peer relationships. On the contrary, when children perceive their father’s parenting attitudes as ‘rejecting and restrictive’ while they view their mother’s attitudes as ‘permissive and faire’, they tend to have negative impacts on the children’s peer relationships. In particular, among various types of parenting attitudes, ‘benevolent and receptive’ parenting has proved to have the most significant influence on children’s peer relationships.
Second, it has been demonstrated that parental rearing attitudes affect children’s empathic ability and sub-factors relating to the ability: perspective-taking, fantasy, empathic concern, and personal distress. In specific, it has been revealed that ‘benevolent and receptive’ is the common factor that develops children’s empathic ability both for father and mother whereas ‘permissive and laissez-faire’ and ‘rejecting and restrictive’ undermine children’s ability to empathize. Particularly, ‘benevolent and receptive’ proved to be the most significant variable among parental rearing attitudes that affect children’s empathic ability.
Third, the statistical association between children’s empathic ability and their peer relationships appears to be very significant at the higher confidence level. In particular, the sub-factors of children’s empathic ability such as perspective-taking, fantasy, empathic concern, and personal distress have demonstrated meaningful impacts on peer relationships.
Fourth, the test on the mediating effects of children’s empathic ability in parental attitudes and peer relationships reveals that children’s empathic ability is functioning as a full mediating factor in parental attitudes and peer relationships. In particular, the paternal parenting attitudes including ‘benevolent and receptive’, ‘permissive and laissez-faire’, and ‘rejecting and restrictive’ and children’s empathic ability in their peer relationships demonstrate the full mediation effects. In addition, two categories of maternal parenting attitudes, ‘benevolent and receptive’, and ‘permissive and laissez-faire’, have shown the full mediation effects. This reflects that paternal and maternal parenting attitudes indirectly influence children’s peer relationships through children’s empathic ability.
Thus, the statistical test results presented in this paper confirm the hypothesized mediating effects of children’s empathic ability in the relationships between their perception of parenting attitudes and peer relationships.