This study looked into how the activity after-school class of students at elementary school would affect the parents-children communication, the problem behaviors and the school adjustment, defining how the sub-factors of the participation in the acti...
This study looked into how the activity after-school class of students at elementary school would affect the parents-children communication, the problem behaviors and the school adjustment, defining how the sub-factors of the participation in the activity after-school class, the parents-children communication and the problem behaviors are related to the school adjustment. In order to figure out how the activity after-school class would influence the parents-children communication, the problem behaviors and the school adjustment, the study selected fifth and sixth graders at elementary schools located in C1 city, C2 city and J city, Chungcheongbuk-do as a population, and extracted a total of 979 samples by using the quota sampling method. The analysis was, then, conducted.
A questionnaire was what this study had chosen as a research tool, and the first preliminary investigation was carried out, and the validity of the questions was verified after the discussion with a group of experts. The second preliminary investigation was performed, and both the validity and the reliability were confirmed. Working on the measuring items of the verified validity, the study conducted the confirmatory factor analysis to extract a research model.
SPSS 18.0 and AMOS 18.0 were applied to carrying out the descriptive statistics analysis, the frequency analysis, the principle component analysis, the reliability analysis, the confirmatory factor analysis, the t-test, the one-way variance analysis, the correlation analysis, the regression analysis and the structural equation model analysis on the collected data. The conclusions gained from the extracted results are presented as follows.
First, the study focused on gender and found out that the male students were having the parents-children problem communication more than the female students were and that those male students had more overt problem behaviors than the female students did. The female students would prefer the open communication as they have intrinsic problem behaviors. They were considered to be good at adapting themselves to school. In terms of the grade, the fifth graders were observed to have the open communication with the parents more than the sixth graders do. It was learned that those students joining the activity after-school class were having the open parents-children communication more often as committing fewer problem behaviors, doing better with the school adjustment. The students participating in the activity after-school class would less engage in the problem communication but actively cooperate on school functions. When it comes to how frequently the students participate in the activity after-school class, when the participation frequency was higher, the student felt less inferior as they kept a positive relationship with the teachers. In the light of what has been learned so far, the study suggests that the field of education should have good understanding on the relations among the parents-children communication, the problem behaviors and the school adjustment of the students to conduct educational programs and personality training to help the students with their lives at school. The study also recommends this activity after-school class as a solution to any problem in relation to the students’ school adjustment. The activity after-school class is an important chance for the students to work their several problems out, and if they keep participating in the class, they will be eventually able to improve their parents-children communication as they adjust themselves to school even more efficiently, alleviating the problem behaviors.
Second, the participation in the activity after-school class was observed to be positively related to the parents-children communication, the problem behaviors and the school adjustment. The parents-children communication changed by the activity after-school class was reducing the problem behaviors caused by depression, inferiority, rebelliousness and kleptomania as it was making positive changes in the students’ school adjustment which would include their lives at school, relationships with teachers but also peers and participation in school functions. Regarding the problem behaviors changed by the students’ participation in the activity after-school class, such behaviors appeared to have a negative influence on the school adjustment and yet, how much negatively they affect the school adjustment of the students in the activity after-school class turned out to be relatively mild comparing to the seriousness of that effect on the school adjustment of those who were not attending the activity after-school class. Those findings are a proof for how necessary it is for schools to keep providing the students with chances and motivations to join the activity after-school class continuously. As long as the activity after-school class is designed systematically, the class is very much likely to help the students improve an ability to have the positive parents-children communication, solving any problem with themselves either at school or in their personal relationships. That is why the field of education needs to offer a chance to the students to join the activity after-school class in which they could meet friends all the time. There, the students are able to develop a bond of sympathy between each other, promoting a sense of psychological stability. The students, then, will be able to reduce possibilities of their committing intrinsic and/or overt problem behaviors.
Third, the study worked on the structural equation to see if the activity after-school class could affect the parents-children communication, the problem behaviors and the school adjustment. According to the results, a causal relationship was found between the parents-children communication and the problem behaviors, except for the school adjustment. Not only that, the parents-children communication changed by the participation in the activity after-school class was determined to decrease the problem behaviors, helping the students with their school adjustment. The mediating effects of the problem behaviors changed by the activity after-school class in relation to the school adjustment were understood to be relatively unimpressive comparing to the non-participants. Considering that, it is possible enough to regard the activity after-school class as some effective psychological and sociological way to resolve issues such as maladjustment and school violence caused by conflicts with families and peers which are, now, rampant in this modern society. In this regard, it is expected that school should think about the developmental stages and psychological·emotional issues of the students most carefully before they try to systematically design various activity after-school class programs, encouraging the students to join.
To conclude, it has been verified that the activity after-school class has a positive influence on the parents-children communication, the problem behaviors and the school adjustment, and that being the case, the study, now, believes that this organized activity after-school class, which would attract the students to continuously join with interest, improve the students’ ability to have the positive parents-children communication as reducing the problem behaviors. That would eventually resolve any problems caused by the school maladjustment but prevent school violence. After all, the study argues that the activity after-school class will be an educational alternative good and solid enough to keep the students healthy physically, emotionally, socially and psychologically. Having been sure of the positive effects of the activity after-school class, the study suggests that in order to expand the educational effects of this class, school should try everything they can do to convince the students of participating in sports activities after school either every day or on weekends as doing the best to establish the human·material infrastructure which would help them to design both efficient and systematic activity after-school class programs.