정상아동과 비만아동의 일상생활 스트레스와 대처, 사회적 지지의 비교연구 = A Comperative Study On the Life Stress, Coping Style, and Social Support between Obese Children and Normal Children

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The purpose of this study is to serve as a basis for the development of a counseling and guidance program, which would help children cope with stress more effectively and help them to adapt themselves to society and everyday life better. An attempt was made to make a comparative analysis of stress in daily life, coping abilities and social support, between obese children and normal children.
The subjects of this study were 162 obese children and 195 normal children, who were randomly selected from the fifth and sixth grade at four elementary schools in the city of Chungju, two elementary schools in JInchun-kun, and one elementary school in Chungwon-kun. The period of data collection was 15 days from July 1 to July 15, 1998.
One instrument used to measure stress in daily life was Chun's scale that consisted of 30 items within the following 8 domains 6 items for grade factor, 5 for friend, 5 for parents, 5 for teacher, 3 for outward appearance, 3 for the amount of learning, 2 for heteronomous guidance and 2 for economy. Another test employed on how to cope with stress was Choi's scale, which classified Lazarus & Folkman Checklist by Guttman's three way environment controls to reorganize into 3 stages, 5 items for each stage. The other used to measure social support was Shim's scale, which recoganized Weiss's concept into 4 patterens:attachment and intimacy(4 items), social integration(3 items), value commitment(3 items), and helping and guidance(3 items).
The collected data were computerized by SAS;
In the analysis of data, the general characteristics were assessed by calculating frequency and percentage and analyzing x^2-test. For everyday life stress and the pattern of coping with it, average and standard deviation were estimated and the results were tested by a t-test. For social support, a t-test was carried out, to find out, how many people offered social
support and how the degree of social support differed. The percentage was calculated to determine the frequency of offering social support, and x^2-test, was employed to explore the disparity among people who offered social support. The percentage also was estimated to examine the frequency of offering social support in each subpattern.
The findings of this study are as follows:
1)The mean of everyday life stress was worse for obese childrens(M=2.045) than normal children(M=2.098). But the disparity between them was not significant(t=-1.267,P>0.05)
The statistically significant disparities were found in the marks of stress caused by learning amount factor between the two groups(t=-2.912, P<0.01), and the marks of stress caused by economic factor also exhibited statistically significant disparities(t=12.066, P<0.05)
2) For the attitude actively coping with stress, the obese children(M=1.977) got mean marks worse than that of the normal children(M=2.056). And there were statistically significant disparities(t=-2.015, p < 0.05). In the attitude of misteriously coping with stress, the obese children(M=-2.254, p < 0.05).
The obese children's mean marks (M=1.831), and there were statistically significant disparities(t=-2.236, p < 0.05)
3) The number of people, Who provided social support, was 26.83 for the obese children and 33.39 for the normal children. So the obese children had social support, offerers less than normal children did, and there were statistically significant disparities(t=-3.746, p < 0.001)
The mean marks in the degree of general social support was M=10.08 for the obese children and M=10.06 for the normal children, and the disparities wasn't statistically significant (t=-1.813, p < 0.05)
4) The obese children's frequency of being provide with social support was lower than the normal children's, and the disparities were very significant statistically (x^2=224.014, p < 0.001)
In conclusion, there was no statistically significant difference in everyday life stress between the obese children and normal children, but their patterns of coping differed significantly. No significant disparties was observed in the degree of social support, while the frequency of being provided with social support differed very significantly.
Accordingly, this study might be helpful to develop programs in a way to make use of the existing social support offerers more effectively in order to have children cope with everyday life stress more actively.