The purpose of this study is to develop prechool childrens daily stress scale and verify its reliability and validity. Since a prechool childrens stress scale appropriate for Korean preschool children is non-existent, an accurate test result of Korean...
The purpose of this study is to develop prechool childrens daily stress scale and verify its reliability and validity. Since a prechool childrens stress scale appropriate for Korean preschool children is non-existent, an accurate test result of Korean preschool childrens stress can not be made, this study attempted to develop a preschool childrens daily stress scale which is appropriate for preschool children in Korea.
In order to develop such a scale, primary research and pilot study were done as mentioned in STUDY I. The reliability and the validity of the scale was verified in STUDY II. And the rank of the preschool childrens daily stress items was analyzed to provide discussions for more practical issues in STUDY Ⅲ.
In STUDY I, 600 preschoolers(ages 3-6), 732 parents, 47 teachers including directors at five kindergartens and four day care centers in Seoul were interviewed through a open question method which asked them to provide a written explanation of the situation which generates stress. A total of 2,345 responses were collected and they were initially divided into 102 different items. After consulting 29 professional evaluators who evaluated the content validity of the items using the 7-point scale, the number of items was readjusted to 65 items. A professionally done drawing was added for each of the 65 items. To test the validity of drawing and as a test tool, six professional psychologists and 2 parents were consulted, and also tested twice by 20 preschoolers as a pilot study. As a result of pilot study and consulting, 65 items were further adjusted to 61 items. The drawings were modified three times to reflect the results of the pilot study. After ready for the drawings of the 61 items, printed as a test card and tested third pilot study by 300 preschool childrens and after factor analysis, "experience anxiety-distress", "hurt pride", and "encounter criticized-violent situation" were found as three factors and 31 items were finally selected.
In STUDY II, the 31 items were further tested. Using the same method as the third pilot test, final 31 items were tested by 550 preschool children. The teachers of those childrens were asked to observe their students behavior and provide their professional evaluation. Also, the parents of the 550 preschool children were asked using a questionnaire to provide their personal information, their childrens daily stress scale, and their own parental stress.
The reliability of the scale was calculated by Cronbachs α coefficient and the total α=.80 and the calculation for each factor was .62, .68, and .66, respectively.
To verify the validity of the scale, content validity, construct validity, and criteria-related(concurrent) validity were tested.
The content validity was verified several times by professional.
Factor analysis, t-test, and discriminant analysis were used to verify construct validity and factor analysis was proved to be similar to that of the third pilot test which resulted in the same three factors and the number of items was further adjusted to 23, and the total explained-variable value was 79.73%. Inter-factor correlation for the three factors was measured at .45, .52, and .26, respectively. To verify the content validity of the scale, the t-test was conducted between a group of children from normal-family preschool children group and a group of children from single-parent preschool children group, and the difference between a group of children who showed normal-children group and a group of children who showed clinical-children group, and the result was significant. Also the result of the discriminant analysis conducted to verify the discriminant nature of the scale developed by this study in discriminating between normal-family preschool children group and single-parent preschool children group, and between normal-children group and clinical-children group was proved as a discriminant scale which specifies those groups.
For the verification of criteria-related(concurrent) validity, a correlation between the scale and other scale was measured by Pearsons product-moment correlation coefficient. There was a significant positive correlation (r=.13, p<.05) between Korean Preschool Daily Stress Scale (KPDSS) and Korean Preschool Behavior Questionnaire(KPBQ). The concurrent validity of the scale supported by this study was also verified through canonical correlation analysis which analyzed all the relationships between the subfactor of the preschool childrens daily stress scale and other scales subfactors. After a correlation between the KPDSS and other variables was measured by Pearsons product-moment correlation coefficient, criteria-related(concurrent) validity of the scale supported through the correlation between KPDSS and the familys monthly income, and between KPDSS and number of extracurricular lessons showed a significant negative correlation(r=-.12, p<.05).
In STUDY III, the rank of the preschool childrens perception and their mothers perception were arranged and analyzed to calculate the rank of the preschool childrens daily stress factors. And to compare the rank between mothers perception and the childrens perception, Spearmans rank correlation coefficient was used. The result shows significant rank correlation coefficient(rho=.75, p<.001). Therefore, the practical issues regarding the result were discussed.
Also, the scale development procedure and its reliability, validity discussed and practical issues were discussed.
This study was significant in that this was the first preschool childrens daily stress scale developed yet in Korea with the direct response and input from Korean preschool children. The result of this study will be most helpful for preschool teachers, parents, and any other people who may have interest in child education to better understand and better educate children.
Further study and research to re-verify the scale developed by this study may be necessary. Also, more field testing of the scale developed by this study through a greater number of preschool children is needed to achieve the standardization of the newly developed scale.