• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.151-165
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between child-mother 'goodness-of-fit', mothers' empathy and parenting stress. A sample of 324 mothers of 5th graders in the Seoul Metropolitan area participated in this study. Mothers answered questionnaires on the levels of their parenting stress, empathy and child-mother 'goodness-of-fit'. Data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficients, as well as multiple and hierarchical regressions. Child-mother 'goodness-of-fit', as well as mothers' empathy was a predictor for parenting stress; significant interaction effects were found between child-mother 'goodness-of-fit' and the mothers' empathy on parenting stress. These results indicate the need for possible intervention in relation to mothers' empathy levels and to reduce parenting stress.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.75-85
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• 2005

This study was performed to clarify which variables affected a mother‘s empathic behavior shown in a mother-child play session. Mother’s empathy was videotaped and recorded during mother-child twenty minute play sessions. The variables considered in the research were the mother‘s parenting stress, age and education level, and the child’s sex and birth order. Twenty four mothers volunteered to participate in this study. The age of their children was restricted to 5 years. The results were as follows; First, mothers were verbally more accepting to their second or third child, and allowed their second of third child to lead more than their first child. And older mothers were more likely to accept their children's lead. Seconds, the mothers' parenting stress for acceptance of their children and stress of depression were higher in college graduate mothers than high school graduate mothers. Third, the mother's empathy and level of parenting stress did not show any significant relationships.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.389-400
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• 2014

This study identified the mediating effect of the child's emotional expression on the relationship between the mother's empathy and the child's prosocial behavior. The participants included 310 mothers of children between the ages of 2 and 5 from two kindergartens and four day care centers located in Gyeonggi-do. The mother's empathy was measured using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. The child's prosocial behavior was measured using the Preschoolers' Prosocial Behavior Index. The child's emotional expression was assessed using a questionnaire from previous research. First, older mothers and less educated mothers showed a higher level of empathy. Mothers over the age of 30 were more likely to have the ability to imagine other roles in movies or books, and to show empathic concern than those under 36. Mothers without a college degree showed a higher level of perspective-taking than those with a college degree. Second, girls were more likely to engage in prosocial behaviors and show emotional expressions than boys. Three-year-old children were more likely to share than two-year-old children, showed more initiative than two- and four-year-old children. Third, the mother's perspective-taking and empathic concern were significantly related to the child's prosocial behavior and emotional expression. The mother's personal distress was related to the child's control over emotions and awareness of other's emotion. Finally, the child's emotional expression had a mediating effect on the relationship between the mother's empathy and the child's prosocial behavior.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.59-75
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• 2015

The purpose of this research is to understand the relationship between children's affective empathy, their mother's cognitive and affective empathy, and children's prosocial behavior; as well as to examine ways of enhancing children's prosocial behavior by analyzing the factors affecting its development. The results of this study may be summarized as follows. First, girls generally had higher levels of empathetic ability and pro-social behavior than boys. Secondly, there was not to be no significant correlation between the children's affective empathetic ability and the mothers' cognitive and affective empathetic abilities. However, there was a significant association between the affective empathy of the children and the mothers' cognitive empathetic abilities with the children's prosocial behavior. Thirdly, both the affective empathy of the children and the mothers' cognitive empathy predicted the level of the children's prosocial behavior.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.42 no.9
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• pp.53-66
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to identify how characteristics of young children (sex, age, temperament), mothers (employed or unemployed, intimacy between mother and child, parenting attitudes), and home environment (pet, TV/Video viewing) relate to young children's empathy and to examine the relative effects of then variables on young children's empathy. The subjects for this study were 300 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds selected from kindergartens and day-care centers in Busan. Data were analyzed via t-test, correlation, and multiple regression. Results showed that girls had higher empathy score than boys. Young children's empathy was positively correlated with the sociability of young child's temperament, intimacy between mother and young child, reasoning guidance, affect, achievement of parenting attitudes, and parental intervention toward young child after TV/video viewing. However, young children's empathy was correlated negatively with authoritarian control of parenting attitudes. Among then variables, young children's sex was the most significant variable.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.17-37
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• 2015

The study examined the pathways from maternal reactions to children's negative emotions to children's peer relations through children's empathy and emotional regulation. The participants in this study comprised 463 elementary school 4th-6th graders. They completed questionnaires on maternal reactions to children's negative emotions, levels of children's empathy, maladaptive emotion regulation types and skill levels of children's peer relations. Data were analyzed by means of structural equation modeling. It was found that in the case of maternal emotion coaching reactions, when done indirectly, as well as directly, had an influence on their levels of peer relations. On the other hand, in the case of over-sensitive maternal reactions, when done indirectly, but not directly, had an influence on their levels of peer relations. Therefore, these results indicate that children's empathy mediated the effects of maternal emotion coaching and over-sensitive reactions on peer relations. It also found that there are distinct pathways from maternal reaction types to children's negative emotions to peer relations through empathy and maladaptive emotion regulation types.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.29-59
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• 1988

Empathy was defined in this study as the vicarious affective response of a person to the perceived experience of another. The purpose of this study was to study the relationship between empathic development of children and intimacy with parents, socio-economic status, and children's empathic response to specific affective situations happy, sad, angry and fearful. The subjects for this study were 8-, 10-, and 12-year-old children attending an elementary school located in Seoul. Among the subjects, 158 boys and 149 girls lived with their parents, and 20 boys and 35 girls were reared in orphanges. They were from a residential area with higher, middle, and lower class families. The instruments consisted of two modified empathy measures and two questionnaires developed by the researcher. One of the empathy measures was based on Feshbach & Roe's affective situation test for empathy. In order to determine the eight themes, 20 children were interviewed individually about situations that made them "happy, sad, angry, and afraid". From the pool of responses, eight themes representing happy, sad, angry and fearful situations were selected. Each story consisted of a series of three pictures accompanying narration. Another modified empathy measure was developed by the researcher based upon Bryant's empathy scale. This measure consisted of 17 statements describing happy, sad, angry and fearful situations. The items in this scale were selected from a pilot study. The two questionnaires developed by the researcher were to test children's intimacy for their parents and feminity. The data was analyzed with T-test and F-test. Children's intimacy with their parents, particularly, son's intimacy with their mothers, was a significant variable in empathic development. Children living with their parents had higher scores on Feshbach & Roe's Empathy Test than those brought up in orphanages. In general, the older the children the higher the empathy score. Girls were more empathic than boys on Bryant's scale. The subjects showed their highest empathy score in the sad, and the lowest in the fearful situation. The older the children the higher the empathy score in the sad and angry situations. These results reflected children's life experiences and cultural differences. Particularly, mother-son intimacy found in this study contrasts with the mother-daughter intimacy found in American studies.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.209-220
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• 2013

This study is based on the interviews with six mothers to analyze their verbal response types with their young children ages 3-5 attending day-care center. This study was done from 10AM. to 12PM. August 18th 2012 at the director's room at P day care center in Seoul. For this study the following four situations mothers experience in child-rearing have been selected: self-achievement, sibling quarrel, nagging and isolation. As for the interview questionnaires the four verbal response types-stimulating, problem-solving, critical and indifferent ones-have been used. According to the results of this research, mothers tend to use stimulating verbal response types like praise in the situation of self-achievement; problem-solving response types like command in the situation of sibling quarrel; problem-solving response types like warning in the situation of nagging; and lastly, stimulating verbal response types like empathy in the situation of isolation. Mothers need to form more empathy with their children in such difficult situations as sibling quarrel or nagging. For mothers' efficient verbal responses for their children, accordingly, empathy in parent education needs to be more emphasized.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.99-113
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• 2022

This study examined the effect of maternal cognitive empathy on children's executive function focusing on mediating effects of preschooler's caring behavior and happiness. The subject of this study was 460 five-year-old preschooler-their mother dyads in Korea. Data were collected by Korean Version of Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy(K-QCAE), Caring Behaviors Scale for Young Children, Happiness Scale for Young Children and Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool Version(BRIEF-P). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, Pearson correlation analysis, structural equation model and bootstrapping test with SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 23.0 program. The major results were as follows. 1) Maternal cognitive empathy had a positive influence on preschooler's caring behavior. 2) Preschooler's caring behavior had a positive influence on happiness and executive function. 3) Preschooler's happiness had a positive influence on executive function. 4) The effect of maternal cognitive empathy on preschooler's executive function was mediated by preschooler's caring behavior. 5) The effect of maternal cognitive empathy on preschooler's executive function was sequentially mediated by preschooler's caring behavior and happiness. This study revealed that maternal cognitive empathy, preschooler's caring behavior, and happiness have an important role in preschooler's executive function. Most of all, we suggest that maternal cognitive empathy should be improved to promote preschooler's executive function. The findings of this study will contribute to designing intervention programs to improve preschooler's executive function as well as maternal empathy.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.18 no.3 s.47
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• pp.71-84
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• 2000

The purpose of this study is to analyze the structure of maternal experiences. This study applies ethnographic case study, interview data were collected through in-depth interviews of 10 key interviewees. Findings were as follows: (1) Experiences of the body were about creating a new being through the pain of giving a birth and differed according to woman's self-evaluation of identity. (2) Child-rearing experiences marked a shift of position from a child to a parent. Interviewees experienced the hardhsip of life as a mother, its meanings differed according to the social context of interviewees. Child-rearing experiences meant a process of personal maturity. (3) Mother-child relationship shaped by child-rearing experiences, is a process of building meanings. It led to empathy and reinterpretation of her mother's life.