• Human Ecology Research
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.57-66
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• 2017

This study investigates the effect of a leadership program to enhance leadership skills in children from low-income families. A total of 45 elementary school students participated in the 52-week leadership program. Five leadership scales, such as goal attainment, paradigm shifting skills, skills to lead others, human relationship skills, and sense of purpose, were measured through survey questionnaires before and after implementing the program. In addition, individual teacher interviews examined the influence of the program on students' leadership skills. This study found that participants showed significant improvement after implementing the program in the three domains of the leadership skills (goal attainment, paradigm shifting skills, and human relationship skills); however, the skills to lead others and sense of purpose did not significantly change. The leadership teachers also stated that the program influenced positively on students' leadership skills; in addition, students' behavioral changes were found by developing relationships with other children as well as contemplating and attempting to find a future dream and vision. The leadership program was effective to enhance leadership skills in children from low-income families. This study can provide the theoretical and practical foundations for the development and implementation of effective leadership programs that meet the needs of children from low-income families.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.341-353
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• 2013

The object of this study is to examine the relationship between temperament (emotionality, activity, sociability, and shyness) and the resilience (social competence and language ability) of preschool children from low-income families and the moderating effect of maternal warmth. The subjects were 86 low-income preschool children (42 girls and 44 boys; mean age, 70.57 months), their mothers and teachers, recruited from five daycare centers in Namyangju city and Ansan city located in Gyeonggi-do area. Each child's language ability was individually assessed with with the standardized measure, Preschool Receptive-Expressive Language Scale (PRES) and their teachers reported on children's social competence and parents reported on their child's temperament by questionnaire. The collected data was analyzed by correlation analysis and hierarchical regression. The main results of this study were as follows. First, children's emotionality in temperament and maternal warmth had main effects on social competence. Second, only monthly income level and sex had main effects on language ability. Third, maternal warmth moderated the effects of children's shyness in temperament on social competence and language ability as resilience. Findings could provide basic information for programs to promote resilience in preschool children from low-income families.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.61-74
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• 2010

The present study sought to examine parent-child relational factors associated with young child's language abilities according to socioeconomic status. To do so, the survey responses of 2,269 parents of 0- to 5- year-olds, taken from research on the Actual Condition of Korean Children and Youth were analyzed. The results were as follows : (1) Low-income families had significantly fewer toys related to literacy than middle and upper-income families. (2) There were fewer instances of parent-child play interactions as well as lower scores of parenting styles and beliefs in low-income families than in middle and upper-income families. (3) Although there was no difference in terms of language abilities from 0- to 1-year-old children according to socioeconomic status, 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-year-old children from low-income families exhibited significantly lower language scores than children from middle- and upper-income families. (4) Toys related to literacy and parent-child relational factors were positively related to children's language abilities. (5) It can be further argued that toys related to literacy and parent-child relational factors clearly predict children's language abilities.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.305-316
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate how children from low-income families perceived their family strength, ego-resilience and school adjustment. The relative magnitude of effects of family strength, ego-resilience and school adjustment were compared. Data were collected from 217 children in grade 4 through 6 who were attending local child welfare centers located in Seoul, Korea. The key research findings were as follows. Ego-resilience and perceived family strength were related to school adjustment among children in poverty. The relatively greater effect of ego-resilience implied that programs for children in poverty need to focus on developing interpersonal relationship skills or coping strategies designed to enable children from disadvantaged environments to deal with stressful events and to promote their ego-resilience. Additionally, the recovery or enhancement of family strength and ego-resilience will be effective at protecting and solving various adaptive problems that children from low-income families may experience at school.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.87-104
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• 2002

This study investigated developmental levels and explored play behaviors in 194 4- and 5-year-old children from low-income families attending 18 daycare centers in Seoul. The Developmental Test for Korean Kindergartners(Korea Institute Curriculum & Evaluation, 1996) was used to assess developmental levels in seven areas. Play behaviors were observed during free-play in their classrooms. Data were analyzed by two-way ANOVA and $x^2$. Results were that the children from low-income families showed highest scores in motor skill development and the lowest scores in mathematical and scientific development. The children engaged most frequently in group-functional play, followed by onlooker behaviors, group-dramatic, and group-constructive play. Onlooker behaviors were the most frequent activity of the 4-year-olds, and the block corner was the most frequently used area during free-play.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.185-202
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the Seesaw & Swing Early Intervention Program on the positive changes of young children from low-income families. The Seesaw & Swing program was developed by the Community Chest of Korea (Hwang et al., 2009). The subjects for this study consisted of 534 3~6-year olds (177 in the service group, 357 in the control group) from low-income families. The instrument used was the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, second edition (Sparrow, Cicchetti, & Balla, 2005). The results of this study indicated that the Seesaw & Swing intervention program produced positive effects in all of the domain areas under examination : namely, the communication abilities, life skills, socialization, physical development, and adaptive behaviors of young children. In conclusion, the Seesaw & Swing Early Intervention Program for young children from low-income families can be said to be an effective early intervention program which goes some way towards ending the intergenerational transition of poverty in Korea.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.151-159
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• 2014

The study investigated the effects of reading intervention to enhance reading fluency for children from low-income families. The participants were 20 children from low-income families who are in grades 1 to 3. To qualify for participation in this study, all children had to score below 30 % ile on the Receptive vocabulary Test of the Expressive and Receptive Vocabulary Test or the Word reading fluency of the Korean Language-Based Reading Assessment. Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention (n=10) or control (n=10) group. The intervention group participated in the individualized intervention program using the guided repeated reading and the corrective feedback strategies. The results showed that participants in the intervention group performed better on reading fluency than those in the control group after participating in the intervention program. Specifically, guided repeated reading with corrective feedback strategies produced significant improvement on generalization to unpracticed passages as well as practiced passages. The results of this study suggest that guided repeated reading with corrective feedback is effective for enhancing reading fluency for children in Korea. Further study is needed in order to develop language-specific reading intervention.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.172-179
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• 2006

Since the economic crisis in 1997, the number of low income families has increased and the turmoil is likely to affect nutritional and health status of the children in low-income families. The purpose of this study was to investigate dietary behaviors and physical development of low income family children in the Seoul area. The subjects were 44 boys and 56 girls, between the ages of 7 and 12 years, from the beneficiary families of the governmental assistant program and enrolled in after school-care centers. A self-reported questionnaire, including general characteristics and dietary behaviors, was applied to the children and their parents. Skipping meal rate was higher in breakfast than in lunch or dinner, and was less frequent in parents and children families compared to that of the other types of families (p<0.05). Most students are shown that they usually keep the dietary guideline for Korean children. There were significant differences in keeping the dietary guidelines between the parents and children family group and other groups in several items. The results imply that the nutrition education program should be more focused on the families which are not composed of parents and children.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.139-151
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• 2015

In this study, we studied the effects of creative science activities of children from low-income family. Before and after the creative science activity programs, we investigated the children from low-income family on scientific attitude, self-esteem and self-efficacy. Also, after the creative science activity programs for low-income family children were interviewed and the results were analyzed. The result of this study was summarized as following. First, the creative science activities has a positive effect on scientific attitude of low-income family children. Through the creative science activities, the children from low-income familie's average of scientific attitude increased meaningfully. Second, the creative science activities has a positive effect on self-esteem and self-efficacy of low-income family children. Through the creative science activities, the children from low-income familie's average of self-esteem increased meaningfully. In the case of the self-efficacy's average points increased, but there was no statistically meaningful. Based on the results of this research, the children from low-income family were influenced positively by the creative science activities. Especially, the children from low-income families who have fewer chances of science experience than other general children were positively influenced in every aspect of this study.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.157-179
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to examine psychological and behavioral characteristics of parents from low income families and to figure out the influence of these parents' characteristics upon children's problematic behaviors by comparing two-parent families and single-parent families. The subjects in this study were 193 parents who participated in a dream- start program geared toward low-income families. Their psychological and behavioral characteristics were tested, and their children's problem behaviors were investigated. As a result, the children from intact families in the low-income classes showed more problem behaviors when their parents faced heavier parental stress, and they showed less problem behaviors when their parents were more satisfied with their relationship with them. In contrast, the children from single-parent families in the low-income brackets showed less problem behaviors when their parents had better dietary habits and were more satisfied with their daily routine life, and they showed more problem behaviors when their parents were under heavier parental stress. The findings of the study seem to suggest that the development of parental and parent education programs is required to relieve the problem behaviors of children from the low-income classes and improve the parental behavior of their parents, and that a wide variety of assistance should be provided in consideration of the current marital status of parents as well.