In this study, an examination was made to understand the relationship among Elementary school students’ perceived parent attachment, peer attachment and empathy, thereby examining the mediating effect of empathy in the relationship between parent at...
In this study, an examination was made to understand the relationship among Elementary school students’ perceived parent attachment, peer attachment and empathy, thereby examining the mediating effect of empathy in the relationship between parent attachment and peer attachment, parent attachment and teacher attachment, in addition, the mediating effect of empathy and teacher attachment in the relationship between parent attachment and peer attachment.
A survey was made to 402 5th and 6th grade students in 2 Elementary schools in Seoul, and 4 measurement tools--Elementary school student’s perceived parent attachment scale, peer attachment scale, teacher attachment scale, empathy scale--were used. SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 20.0 statistics program was used to conduct a structure equation model analysis in order to verify the structured impact relationship among parent attachment, peer attachment, teacher attachment and empathy, and bootstrap analysis was conducted to verify the significance of the mediating effect.
The summary of the result of this study are as follows. Elementary students’ perceived parent attachment had direct impact on their peer attachment, teacher attachment and empathy; their empathy had direct impact on peer attachment and teacher attachment. The students’ perceived parent attachment had significant impact on peer attachment and teacher attachment through empathy. Also, not only did their perceived parent attachment have impact on peer attachment through teacher attachment, but also a significant impact on peer attachment by empathy and teacher attachment as mediator.
This study has its significance in that the impact of empathy--an internal variable of the individual--was grasped in order for Elementary school students to make high attachment security with peer and teacher, which are the expanded social attachment relationship, and that the fact that Elementary school students’ perceived parent attachment and teacher attachment were the environmental variables that affect their peer attachment security was confirmed. Therefore, a consistent support at social level to improve the awareness of parents and teachers for a healthy attachment relationship development of the Elementary school students as well as involvement and strategy e.g. program development to augment child empathy ability at home and school is necessary.