Relationships between Emotional Competence and Social Anxiety among Korean Children and Adolescents

아동과 청소년의 정서적유능성과 사회불안과의 관계

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between emotional competence and social anxiety among Korean children and adolescents. The subjects of this study were 385 children between fifth and sixth grade ages and 579 middle school students. Their emotional competence was assessed by 'Korean Emotional Competence scale (Kim et al., 2004),' and also their social adjustment was assessed by 'Social Anxiety Scale (Moon & Oh, 2002).' The data were analyzed by ANOVA, the Pearson's correlation, and regression, using SPSS. The results of this study are as follows: (1) Children's and adolescents' emotional competence and social anxiety were relatively high. (2) Their emotional competence had a meaningful difference according to SES, gender, and birth order. (3) Their social anxiety had a meaningful difference according to SES, gender, and birth order. (4) There was a significant relationship between their emotional competence and social anxiety. (5) A regression analysis result of children's and adolescents' social anxiety showed that approximately 11.3% variance could be explained by four emotional competence variables: 'self-expressiveness and assertion,' 'awareness and understanding of emotion,' 'positive acceptance,' and 'collective consciousness.'