The purpose of this study is to examine the differences of and relationships between young children’s self-concept and affective perspective-taking ability depending on having a best friend or not. The research questions are as follows.
1. Is there...
The purpose of this study is to examine the differences of and relationships between young children’s self-concept and affective perspective-taking ability depending on having a best friend or not. The research questions are as follows.
1. Is there any difference young children’s self-concept depending on having a best friend or not?
2. Is there any difference young children’s affective perspective-taking ability depending on having a best friend or not?
3. Is there any relationship between young children’s self-concept and children’s affective perspective-taking ability depending on to having a best friend or not?
This study’s subjects are 99 five-year-old children at a private kindergarten and two child care centers located in Seoul. To Know a best friend relations, peer nomination questionnaire and teacher nomination questionnaire were used, and in order to measure children’s self-concept, Rim Chun-kum(1994)’s instrument which was translated and modified from Bentley and Yeatts(1974)’s “I Feel, Me Feel” Self-Concept Scale was used. For measuring children’s affective perspective-taking ability, the affective perspective-taking ability extracted from Shin Hyun-ok(1996)’s, which was translated and modified from the Hudson, Forman and Brion-Meisels (1982)’s perspective-taking ability instrument, was used. For data analysis, frequency, percentage, average, standard deviation, t test were utilized for the research question 1 and 2. For the research question 3, Pearson’s correlation analysis was used.
The results of this study are as follows.
First, there was the significant difference children’s self-concept depending on having a best friend or not. Children having a best friend tended to have high level of all self-concept and cognitive, emotional, social, physical self-concept than children to not have a best friend. The Factor to show up the biggest gab was emotional self-concept and next factor were social, physical, cognitive self-concept. Therefore having a best friend or not affects children’s self-concept, especially there is the biggest gap in emotional self-concept.
Second, there was the significant difference children’s affective perspective- taking ability depending on having a best friend or not. That is, children having a best friend tended to have high level of affective perspective-taking ability than children to not have a best friend. Therefore having a best friend or not affects children’s affective perspective-taking ability.
Third, there was the significant correlation between children’s self-concept and affective perspective-taking ability depending on having a best friend or not. In case of having a best friend, the higher the child’s affective perspective-taking ability was, the higher the child’s all self-concept and emotional, physical self-concept became, in this order. Also cognitive, social self-concept showed a positive correlation but the correlation a little low. In case of not having a best friend, the higher the child’s affective perspective-taking ability was, the higher the child’s all self-concept and physical, cognitive, social self-concept became, whereas there was no significant correlation between affective perspective-taking ability and emotional self-concept. In addition, children having a best friend showed generally high correlation between affective perspective-taking ability and all self-concept and cognitive, emotional, social self-concept. However children not having a best friend showed higher correlation between physical self-concept and affective perspective-taking ability than children in a best friendship.
In conclusion, children having a best friend showed higher self-concept and affective perspective-taking ability than children not having a best friend. And in general, the relation between children’s self-concept and children’s affective perspective-taking ability showed the positive correlation in both group depending on having a best friend or not.