• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.105-118
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• 2003

Construction of the Prosocial Behavior Scale for young children(PBSYC) was based on document research and interviews with kindergarten teachers and child development specialists. After 200 kindergarten teachers evaluated the 42 items of the PBSYC, factor analysis was conducted; items were categorized into seven factors: leadership, helping, communication, concern, proximity, sharing and empathy. As factors showed high correlation. The prosocial behavior of 306 4 to 5 year old children was measured with the PBSYC and compared with the Babock, Hartle & Lamme(l995) scale. The resulting correlation between the 2 scales was .764. Further tests indicate that the PBSYC is a valid and reliable scale for the measurement of prosocial behavior in young children.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.5-23
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of young children's verbal expression on their prosocial behaviors. The subjects were 44 four-year-olds and 42 five-year- olds in nine kindergartens and daycare centers located in Gyeonggi-do. The instruments used were Verbal Expressiveness Inventory(Jang, 1981) and PBSYC for teachers(Kim, 2003). The major findings of the study were as follows: Concerning the correlations between their verbal expression and prosocial behavior, those who had better verbal expression showed more prosocial behavior. The relationships between the subfactors of verbal expression and those of prosocial behavior were inconsistent to some extent, but there was a positive correlation between the two overall. So it could be said that a better verbal expresson leads to better prosocial behavior. From the findings of the study on the effect of the verbal expression on prosocial behavior, it can be concluded that young children who have better verbal expression are more excellent at building a good peer relationship, helping their peers, being considerate, making themselves accessible, sharing their own belongings with peers and regulating their own emotions. This study is expected to assist early childhood education institutions to provide young children with a variety of educational activities geared toward improving verbal expression to improve their prosocial behaviors. Also, this study is expected to help teachers to improve the prosocial behavior of young children in diverse ways.