The Peer Competence of Children in Poverty

빈곤층 아동의 또래역량

The purpose of this study was to observe differences in peer competence by children's personality and to investigate the relationship between peer competence and characteristics of children from poor families. The subjects were 79 parents and their 4- to 6-year-old children at a kindergarten in Seoul. The instruments were Iannotti's facial drawings cards, vignettes, "roster and rating" the Family Environment Scale (FES) and the Family Expressiveness Questionnaire (FEQ). The main results of this study were that girls from poor families had higher levels of peer competence than boys. There was a significant correlation between the peer competence of the children in poverty and family characteristics. The children's gender, knowledge of emotion, and mother's negatively dominant conduct were the factors that indicated children's behavior in peer competence. Family conflict and mother's emotional conduct did not relate to children's knowledge of emotion.