The father is a very important person to his child and family. The purpose of this study was to increase the parent-child relationship, and the child's physical self-competence/ social self-competence, through a father and child physical activity.
Tw...
The father is a very important person to his child and family. The purpose of this study was to increase the parent-child relationship, and the child's physical self-competence/ social self-competence, through a father and child physical activity.
Twenty volunteers(father-child) were selected from 3 kindergartens in Kyoung-Ki-Province. This study was executed over a period of 5 weeks, and for a total of 5 times, in those kindergartens. Father and children who showed the same pretest ability were selected and then divided into an experimental group(20) and a comparison group(20).
The program for the father-child physical activity consisted of 10 parts. It was reconstructed from a father-child relationship increase program at the Department of Early Childhood Education, Georgia State University, in 1994.
To assess each child's physical self-competence and social self-competence, a Pictorial Scale that was designed by Kang, Jeung Won(1993) and Kim, Hea Jin(1996) was used. Each item contained 2 categories and 30 questions. The collected data were analyzed by t-test analysis using the SPSSWIN program.
The main results obtained from this study are summarized as follows :
First, the father-child physical activity was meaningful to each child. It was effective in increasing physical self-competence in children. Fathers preferred the physical activity to other programs involving their child. These results generally agreed with those from Lamb's research(1976).
Second, this program was helpful for each child's social self-competence. The mean difference score in social self-competence between the experimental group and the comparison group was statistically significant. It showed significant differences of means between pre-test and post-test scores. The experimental group of father-child physical activities increased their children's social self-competence.
Moreover, in the last meeting between this researcher and fathers, it was shown that the job of the father, and the lack of societal perception of the father - child relationship, are obstacles in Korean family life. Most fathers had no information about playing with their children, so this study was useful to them.
In conclusion, the father's participation in his child's life and play made a significant difference to the child's physical and social self-competence.