유아의 형제구조변인 및 형제관계의 질과 유치원 적응의 관계

Abstract

ABSTRACT Sibling relationship affects each other in their lifetime from birth. Siblings have an impact on the cognitive, emotional, physical, relational and verbal development of preschoolers and their socialization as well. However, few studies have ever attempted to investigate the relationship between sibling relationship and adjustment to kindergarten that is the first society with which preschoolers are confronted. The purpose of this study was to examine any possible differences among three-year-old preschoolers in kindergarten adjustment according to their gender, birth order, the gender of sibling and age gap, which are the variables of sibling structure. And it's also meant to determine the relationship between the quality of sibling relationship and kindergarten adjustment. Two research questions were posed: 1. Are there any differences among three-year-olds in kindergarten adjustment according to the variables of sibling structure(gender, sibling gender, birth order and age gap)? 2. What is the relationship between their sibling relationship (paternalism/intimacy, conflict, relative status/power, rivalry) and kindergarten adjustment? 3. How much the subfactors of the quality of sibling relationship explained kindergarten adjustment? The subjects in this study were the selected preschoolers in 26 classes in 13 private kindergartens located in the city of Busan, who were at the western age of three and had a sibling respectively. The instrument used to assess the quality of sibling relationship was Park Hwa-yoon and Ahn La-ri(2005)'s Scale of 16 items that modified Furman and Buhrmester(1985)'s Sibling Relationship Scale, or SRQ. The instrument used to evaluate kindergarten adjustment was Kim Ji-eun (2003)'s adapted version of Jewsuwan, Luster and Kostelink(1993)'s Kindergarten Adjustment Evaluation. To find out the relationship of gender, sibling gender, birth order and age gap to kindergarten adjustment, t-test was conducted. Besides, multiple regression analysis was made to grasp the relationship between the quality of sibling relationship and kindergarten adjustment. The major findings of the study were as follows: First, whether there were any differences among the three-year-olds in kindergarten adjustment according to the sibling structure variables was analyzed. As a result, significant differences were found in that regard according to their gender. The preschool girls scored higher in kindergarten adjustment than the preschool boys. Second, the relationship between the quality of their siblings and kindergarten adjustment was analyzed, and there was a significant positive correlation between the two. When the relationship between the subfactors of their sibling relationship and kindergarten adjustment was analyzed, paternalism/intimacy and relative status/power were significantly correlated with kindergarten adjustment. Third, how much the subfactors of the quality of sibling relationship explained kindergarten adjustment was analyzed. As a result, paternalism/intimacy had an approximately 11% explainability of kindergarten adjustment. In other words, paternalism/intimacy exercised an influence on kindergarten adjustment among the subfactors of sibling relationship. Thus, a positive relationship with a sibling was found to have an impact on kindergarten adjustment.