• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.25-41
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between play behaviors and young children's playfulness in a variety of play space environments. The subjects were 150 4-year old children of 29 mixed-age classes in childcare centers of Seoul and Gyeonggi area. The results were as follows; (1) Their play behaviors differed according to their play environment in terms of classroom spaces. Solitary-active play behaviors were more frequently observed in large play spaces than small. (2) Leading participation, cognitive flexibility, voluntary full immersion, and total playfulness scores correlated negatively with reticent behavior. Leading participation, voluntary full immersion, and total playfulness scores, on the other hand, correlated positively with group play behavior. (3) In small play spaces, leading participation, voluntary full immersion correlated negatively with reticent behavior, but leading participation correlated positively with group play. In middle play spaces, cognitive flexibility correlated negatively with reticent behavior. In large play spaces, voluntary full immersion correlated negatively with parallel play, but leading participation, cognitive flexibility, expressions of joy, voluntary full immersion, and total playfulness score correlated positively with group play.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.69-89
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• 2012

This study was conducted in order to develop a Children's Playfulness Rating Scale(CPRS) and to analyze it in terms of item discrimination, validity, and reliability. The participants in this study consisted of 861 parents whose children were aged from three to six years old. The item discrimination, determined by comparing the highest and lowest group using ${\chi}^2$, Cramer's V, was found to be satisfactory. The reliability of factors, as measured by Cronbach's ${\alpha}$, ranged from .85 to .95. The results of factor analysis identified 4 factors and 35 items were then selected from the 45 items in the original scale. The four factors identified were as follows; (1) leading participation (2) cognitive flexibility (3) expression of joy (4) voluntary full immersion. Concurrent validity was also established by using correlations between the CPRS and CPS(Children's Playfulness Scale). In conclusion, these results demonstrated that the Children's Playfulness Rating Scale is both reliable and valid.