open access
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open access
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ISSN : 1229-0718
This study focuses on the theoretical debate of whether children treat labels as category markers or as features of objects when they perform the label extension task. We investigated whether the phonological similarity and familiarity of labels have effects on task performance. A total of 100 4-year-olds performed the label extension task according to phonological similarity and familiarity of labels. The results indicated that the more phonological features two labels shared, the more likely young children were to extend the labels to the object that is similar in appearance to the target object. These findings suggest that young children are sensitive to the phonological similarity of labels and that they consider this similarity when they extend labels.
In this work, the Emotional Identification and Expression Abilities Improvement Program for upper level elementary-school students with emotional problems was developed to improve their emotional identification and expression abilities, social ability, and psychological health and reduce their behavioral problems. The program emphasized improvement in the emotional lexicon. The Korean EESC, Child Depression Inventory (CDI), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC), a measure of social functioning, and the K-CBCL were administered to 24 children in the intervention group and 25 children in a control group. The intervention group showed significant improvements over time in scores on the Korean EESC, CDI, STAIC, social functioning measure, and K-CBCL. However, there were no significant differences in the control group. These results suggest that program participation is associated with enhancements in emotional ability, social functioning, and psychological health. This study demonstrates that the 8-week emotional lexicon education program may be effective for reducing internalizing/externalizing psychological symptoms and increasing emotional and social abilities in upper-level elementary students.
This study examines the mediating effects of the child's mental representation of the mother and the moderating effects of the mother's emotional characteristics on the relationship between the child’s temperament and behavioral problems in children. Participants were 862 elementary students (grades 1–3) and their mothers. All of the children completed a questionnaire assessing the mental representation of their mothers (NRI). In addition, the mothers completed a questionnaire about the child's temperament (K-JTCI), behavioral problems (K-CBCL), maternal maladaptive emotion regulation strategies (ERSQ), and empathy (PEI). Structural equation modeling showed that direct effects of the child’s temperament and the mother's emotional characteristics were significant. High scores for the child in novelty seeking and high scores for the mother on maladaptive emotion regulation strategies were positively associated with internalizing and externalizing problems. The child’s score on harm avoidance was positively associated with internalizing problems. There were gender differences in internalizing problems. The indirect effects of the child’s temperament and the mother's emotional characteristics were also significant. Novelty-seeking temperament in the child had positive effects on the externalizing problems through the child's negative mental representation of the mother. Maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and empathy in the mother had negative effects on externalizing problems through the child's positive mental representation of the mother. There were gender differences in the mental representation of the mother. The moderating effects of the mother’s emotional characteristics were significant. Children with high novelty-seeking scores showed more externalizing problems while children with high harm avoidance scores showed more internalizing problems when their mothers scored high on maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. With reference to these findings, the implications and limitations of this study were discussed.
The purpose of this study was to examine how adaptive cognitive emotion regulation affects the relationships among across covert narcissism, shame, anger, and reactive aggression. Structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis were conducted using self-report data from 564 middle school students. The SEM analysis revealed that shame mediates the relationship between covert narcissism and anger, and anger serves a mediator in the relationship between shame and reactive aggression. Further, shame and anger both served as mediators in the relationship between covert narcissism and reactive aggression. According to the multi-group analysis, the direct path from covert narcissism to reactive aggression was not significant for the upper 30% group of scores on the scales of adaptive cognitive emotion regulation. Further, there was a significant group difference in the path from covert narcissism to shame. Effective prevention and intervention strategies based on these findings were discussed to decrease reactive aggression. The importance of enhancing adaptive cognitive emotion regulation was also emphasized.
The purpose of this study was to explore the relations among rapid automatized naming (RAN), executive functions (working memory, inhibition, and shifting), and reading abilities in the upper grades of elementary school. In the present study, reading ability was assessed in terms of reading fluency and reading comprehension and was compared with predictive factors for each reading skill. The subjects were 59 fourth-grade students (24 boys and 35 girls) attending an elementary school in Kyongki province. Digit rapid automatized naming, inhibition, verbal working memory were variables with a significant contribution to reading fluency. Second, inhibition, shifting, and socioeconomic status predicted reading comprehension. In sum, the results showed differences in predictive factors according to the type of reading ability (reading fluency or reading comprehension). Therefore, this study suggests the importance of identifying factors that could affect reading fluency and reading comprehension in order to develop an effective reading strategy intervention for elementary school children.
The current research examined whether Korean adults and 4-year-old children show sensitivity to proportional equity. In Experiments 1 (adults) and 2 (children), two experimenters (“distributors”) gave the participants some of their resources. Following this, the participants were asked which distributor was nicer. The absolute amount and proportion of resources given to the participants by the distributors differed across trials. Adults always judged the distributor who gave proportionally more as nicer. In contrast, 4-year-olds showed sensitivity to proportional equity only when the absolute amount of the stickers given was the same. Experiment 3 examined the experiences that could enhance 4-year-olds' ability to consider proportional equity. After having distributed resources themselves, children were more likely to regard the distributor who gave them proportionally more stickers as nicer than the other who gave them absolutely more stickers. The current findings suggest that ⑴ Korean 4-year-olds possess some sensitivity to proportional equity when evaluating distributions and ⑵ their own distribution experiences can enhance their understanding of proportional equity.
This study compares maternal anxiety, parenting attitude, psychological well-being, and parenting stress between mothers of children with and without disabilities, and investigates the effects of maternal anxiety, parenting attitude, and psychological well-being on maternal parenting stress. The results showed a positive correlation between parenting stress and maternal anxiety in both groups of mothers, and a negative correlation between affective, positive and rejective parenting attitude of affective, positive, rejective and controlled parenting attitude. Also, a negative correlation between psychological well-being. Mothers of children without disabilities had higher positive parenting attitude and psychological well-being scores than mothers of children with disabilities. Mothers of children with disabilities had higher parenting stress scores than mothers of without disabilities. Finally, it was shown that maternal anxiety and parenting attitude are the main factors influencing parenting stress in both groups of mothers.
Executive functioning (EF) was analyzed in terms of age, gender and birth order of children and maternal characteristics(educational level and employment status). In the city of Ulsan, tests of EF (DCCS and selective attention tasks), a survey on sociodemographic variables, and teacher-completed rating scales (BRIEF, Conners’ scale) were administered to 124 3–7 year olds, their parents, and their teachers. There were no significant effects of birth order or mothers' education level, but age effects on selective attention and recall tasks. Gender effects on the BRIEF ratings (working memory, inhibition, planning and organization) were significant. The age X gender interaction effects were significant in DCCS and recall performance. Attention problems were significantly higher in boys than in girls, and maternal employment predicted ratings on the BRIEF. There were significant correlations between teachers' ratings, but no correlations between children's performance on various EF measures and teachers' ratings.
The purpose of this study was to identify the influence of prior knowledge and reasoning about object movement phenomenon on children’s post knowledge formation. Forty 4-, 6- and 8- year-olds (a total of 120 subjects) were selected for this study. The subjects were chosen from three preschools and two elementary schools located in middle-class residential areas of Seoul and Kyoung-Ki province. Each child was asked to perform the tasks of “weight” and “size”. The child's prior knowledge, reasoning, and post knowledge of 3 object movement phenomena(buoyancy, free-fall, sloping) were observed. The influential variables for post knowledge of the three phenomena were both reasoning and prior knowledge. For the buoyancy phenomenon, the effect of the size task reasoning was found to be stronger than that of the weight task reasoning. For the free-fall phenomenon, the effect of the weight task reasoning was found to be the strongest, followed by the size task reasoning and the size task prior knowledge. Whereas, for the sloping phenomenon, the effect of the size task reasoning was found to be the strongest, followed by the weight task reasoning, and the size task prior knowledge. Thus, this study revealed that reasoning and prior knowledge about phenomena related to object movement affected the formation of post knowledge.
This study was designed to examine roles of parenting goals and feedback as conditions for flow experiences in parenting, investigate the effects of mothers’ flow experiences on parenting self-efficacy and satisfaction, and examine the mediating effects of flow experiences. Data were collected from 651 mothers with children aged 3 to 5 years. Mothers completed self-report questionnaires consisting of four scales. Path analyses showed that both parenting goals and feedback were significant predictors of mothers’ flow experiences. Parenting goals and feedback were also directly associated with parenting self-efficacy. Parenting goals were significantly related to parenting satisfaction; however, parenting feedback did not have a direct effect on satisfaction. In the association among parenting goals, feedback, efficacy, and satisfaction, flow experiences mediated the relationships through their indirect effects on parenting efficacy and satisfaction. These findings confirm that parenting goals and feedback are conditions for flow experience in parenting. Parents may be able to develop or increase the number of their flow experiences, which can enhance their self-efficacy and satisfaction in daily parenting, by fulfilling the conditions associated with these experiences.
Three-year-olds show some difficulty overcoming their bias to trust others’ testimony, especially when the informant was previously honest but became dishonest during interaction with the child. We examined two factors that might present further difficulties to children at this age: (1) whether the direction of the informant’s trait change (positive to negative versus negative to positive) has an influence on the child’s performance (Exp. 1) and (2) whether another adult’s responses to the informant in a prior observation session (Exp. 2) influences the child’s performance. The results showed that while the direction of the informant’s trait change did not affect children's performance, other adults’ responses to the informant was a somewhat influential factor in 3-year-olds’ later responses to the informant.
Children's and their mothers' understanding of children's personal domain were examined in a sample of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children and their mothers. Children were asked to judge mothers' control in personal, moral, and social-conventional domains in terms of compliance, legitimacy, authority contingency, locus of control, and emotion. Children judged mother's control for personal problems as distinct from mother's control for moral and social-conventional problems on compliance, authority contingency and emotion. Unlike children, mothers indicated that they should control children's moral and social-conventional problems and their children should control problems in personal domain. Children's understanding of personal domain was related to maternal psychological control; children who experienced more maternal psychological control tended to think that they should have more control over the problems in the personal domain.
The purpose of this study is to develop an Internet addiction-counseling program for older elementary school children and verify its effectiveness. Forty-six upper-grade elementary school students were selected for a high-risk user group (intervention group, n = 24) and a potential-risk user group (the control group n = 22). The counseling program was developed to help students to recognize problems caused by Internet addiction, establish the degree of their Internet addiction and use habits, learn how to control their Internet use, and experience alternative activities that could replace addictive use of the Internet. In the case of Internet addiction, parent participation is important, so tasks involving parents were included in the sessions. The program comprised six 45-minute sessions. To evaluate the treatment efficacy, the Internet Use Habit Diagnosis Scale (IUHDS) and a self-report measure of the length of time spent on the Internet were administered before and after the treatment. The observer portion of the IUHDS was completed by the parents. The intervention group exhibited a reduction in problems in daily life, withdrawal symptoms, and deviation behaviors, and increased tolerance, as evinced by scores on the sub-scales of the IUHDS. Parent observation indicated that degree of Internet addiction was significantly lowered in the intervention group.
This study examined the relationship of cognitive and emotional empathy with social behaviors, in a sample of 53 10–12–year-old Korean children. Cognitive empathy was measured by a battery of theory of mind tasks. Emotional empathy was measured by facial mimicry response, based on the assumption that emotional contagion by facial mimicry is a key factor in emotional empathy. Facial mimicry scores were calculated using the facial EMG activity in the zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii muscle during exposure to dynamic happy and sad expressions. In addition, children’s empathy and social behaviors were assessed by self-report questionnaires, such as the IRI, BEI, and EQ-C. The mind-reading scores were not correlated with the cognitive empathy subscale scores. In contrast, the facial mimicry scores, which were the differences in mean muscle activity at the zygomaticus major between exposure to happy and sad expressions, were positively correlated with the emotional empathy subscale scores. Facial mimicry scores and mind-reading scores predicted different aspects of pro-social behaviors. The present results demonstrated the dissociation between cognitive and emotional empathy.
The present study examined whether adults and children can understand that the motivation (intrinsic vs. extrinsic) of prosocial behaviors can influence others’ emotions. Korean adults(Experiment 1) and 5- to 6-year-old children(Experiment 2) were asked to indicate the protagonist's emotions after listening to a series of stories. The stories varied on (1) whether or not the protagonist's desire was fulfilled after sharing his or her desired object and (2) whether his or her prosocial behavior had intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. Both adults and children reasoned that the protagonist would feel better when his/her desire was fulfilled than when his/her desire was not fulfilled. In addition, both adults and children reasoned that the protagonist would feel better when he or she shared the desired object with others voluntarily(intrinsic motivation) than involuntarily (extrinsic motivation). The results demonstrate children's understanding that others' emotions can be affected by the motivations of prosocial behaviors.
This study examined whether Korean children's performance on tasks requiring inhibitory control (IC) was related with performance on conflicting-desires and false belief (FB) tasks, and whether such performance is well described by hot and cool dimensions. Ninety-six children participated in the study (48 3-year-olds and 48 4-year-olds). Three different FB tasks (Discrepant Belief, FB Location, and FB Content), two conflicting-desires task , and 6 different inhibitory control tasks (Day/Night, Grass/Snow, Card Sort, Box search 1, Box search 2, and Delay of Gratification) were used. The findings indicated that Korean 3-year-olds performed significantly better on conflicting-desires questions than on FB questions. FB performance significantly improved with age, coming up with 73.5% in 4-year-olds. There were also developmental changes in children's performance on tasks measuring inhibitory control (70% in 3-year-olds vs. 90% in 4-year-olds). CFA on IC performance did not support the two-factor model of cool executive functions and hot executive functions. From the cross-cultural point of view, it is interesting to note that Korean children performed better on the tasks measuring inhibitory control than Western children did. Unlike Western children, Korean children's performance on most inhibitory control tasks was not significantly correlated with FB understanding after controlling for age, gender, and vocabulary. Only performance on the task measuring delay of gratification was significantly correlated with FB. Korean children's performance on some inhibitory control tasks (Day/Night, Grass/Snow, Card Sort, Box search, and Delay of Gratification) was correlated with performance on tasks measuring subject (or perspective) desire understanding. These results suggest that the emergence hypothesis could account for the relations between executive function and theory of mind in Korean data.