The purpose of this work is to investigate how the filial play therapy program joined by fathers affects their young children's self-control, social competence and excessive immersion in internet games.
The study subjects were fourteen fathers whos...
The purpose of this work is to investigate how the filial play therapy program joined by fathers affects their young children's self-control, social competence and excessive immersion in internet games.
The study subjects were fourteen fathers whose young children aged between 3 and 6 wen to three child-care centers located in Asan, Chungcheongnamdo. Of them, seven fathers who were able to weekly participate in a program for their young children were chosen in an experimental group, and the other seven were in a control group. The tools used for this study were Self-control Rating Scale (SCRS) developed by Kendall and Wilcox(1979) and translated by Ji-hyeon Choi (2000), Kohn과 Rosman(1972), Social Competence Scale(SCS) developed by Kohn and Rosman(1972) and changed by So-young Kim (2000), Internet Game Addiction Tendency Scale developed by Gyeong-ok Lee (2006). Based on the tools, before and after the program, the experimental group and the control group were investigated. The program had been performed every Thursday at 7:30 P.M. for two hours from Jan. 17 to Mar. 7, 2013 at G child-care center located in city of Asan, The fathers weekly conducted the program at a given day and time when they performed play therapy with their children at home. The filial play program used in this work was one developed by Guerney(1964), changed by Landreth(1991), and translated and adjusted by Mi-gyeong Jang (1998) in consideration with Korean settings. To test the effects of the program, this researcher used SPSS(Statistical Package for Social Science) 18.0 program for statistics. To compare socio-demographic characteristics of the fathers in the experimental group and the control group, this work calculated frequency and percentage and conducted χ2 test. To examine the changes in self-control rating scale, social competence scale, and internet game excessive-immersion scale, it conducted Mann-Whitney's U test and Wilcoxon and Wilcoxon signed rank test as non-parametric test methods. The significance level for statistical tests was at α=.05.
The study results are summarize as follows:
First, whether the filial play therapy program joined by fathers would improve their young children's self-control was investigated. As a result, after the program, the experimental group's self-control rating significantly increased, whereas the control group's didn't. It indicates that the filial play program joined by fathers is effective in improving their young children's self-control. Second, whether the filial play therapy program joined by fathers would improve their young children's social competence was investigated. As a result. after the program, the experimental group's activity and cooperation ratings showed significant difference, but the control group's cooperation and stability ratings decreased. It indicates that the filial play program joined by fathers is effective in improving their young children's social competence. Third, whether the filial play therapy program joined by fathers would reduce their young children's excessive immersion in internet games was investigated. As a result, after the program, the experimental group's excessive immersion in internet games rating improved, whereas the control group's fell somewhat. It indicates that the filial play program joined by fathers is effective in improving their young children's excessive immersion in internet games.
Fourth, the more the fathers participated in the program, the more they seemed to understand their young children and to look reasonable. Also, they tried to put themselves in their young children's shoes and to look into their psychological status.
Given the study results above, it is indicated that the filial play therapy program joined by fathers is positively effective in improving their young children's self-control, social competence and excessive immersion in internet games.