The purpose of this study is to find out factors in increasing
children’s sense of_ community by exploring the effect of family
strengths and school a이ustment on a children and the mediating
effect of social competence focusing on sense of communi...
The purpose of this study is to find out factors in increasing
children’s sense of_ community by exploring the effect of family
strengths and school a이ustment on a children and the mediating
effect of social competence focusing on sense of community which is
increasingly needed for a member of a society. This study also tries
to find community-centered approaches to increasing the sense of
community of children based on the belief that the fundamental
purpose of child welfare is to help children grow as a sound member
of a society.
To that end, the researcher investigated family strengths, school
adjustment, and social competence of the participants, examined the
differences shown in groups with different social demographic
characteristics and tried to ver퍼 the ability of family strengths and
school adjustment to explain the sense of community of children. And
this study tried to explorε the mediating effect of social competence
that might function both in the relationship between family strengths 없ld sense of community and in the relationship between school
a띠ustment and sense of community.
In order to achieve the research goals above, the researcher
administered questionnaire surveys to five- and six-grade elementary
school students from schools located in four different administrative
districts and one county including Nam-gu, Dongnae-gu, Sasang-gu,
Yeongdo-gu, and K끼 ang-gun, Busan, Korea. In total, 439 responses
were analyzed for reliability, descriptive statistics, T-test, ANOVA,
regression and Structural Equation Modeling.
The findings of this study are as follows.
First, the demographic characteristics of the su비ects were
categorized into five different factors: gender, the existence/
non-existence of siblings, parents' dual career or not, parents'
academic ability, self-perceived level of living. Family strengths were
presented differently according to the existence/ non-existence of
siblings, parents' dual career or not, parents' academic ability and
self-perceived level of living. School a이ustrnent showed differences
depending on gender, the existence/ non-existence of siblings, parents'
dual career or not, parents' academic ability 없ld self-perceived level
of living. As for social competence, differences were displayed in
accordance with gender, the existence/ non-existence of siblings,
parents' academic ability and self-perceived level of living. Sense of
community was shown differently depending on the existence/
non-existence of siblings, parents' academic ability and self-perceived
level of living.
Second, all of the sub-factors of family strengths: family connection,
family communication, family problem solving ability, family value
sharing turned out to be me없lingful for family strengths. Especially, family value sharing was revealed to be the most influential factor.
Third, school a여ustrnent had four sub-factors that were statistically
meaningful: learning activity, school regulations, peer relation,
relationship with teachers. Among the four sub-factors, school
regulations and peer relation were found to be the most statistic머ly
signific뻐t factors.
Finally, the mediating effect of social competence occurring in the
relationship between family strengths and sense of community was
revealed not to be statistically significant. In other words, family
strengths only had direct effect on children's sense of community.
Also, 잉the mediating effect of social competence occurring in the
relationship between school adjustment and sense of community was
found to be statistically meaningful. Hence, the total effect of school
adjustment on children's sense of cornrnrn디ty increased as a result of
the sum of direct effect and indirect effect.
The practical implications this study might have are as follows. This
study took into account both family- and school-related variables in
exploring factors that had influences on children's sense of
community, and investigated the mediating effect of social competence
that is developed as children engages in socialization. Through this,
this study has been able to present an extensive model concerning
the sense of community of children. And this study suggests
commrn디ty-centered approaches to improving the sense of community
of children rather than approaches in which an individual, family and
school are separately intervened.