• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.193-210
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• 2010

This study explored the common response profiles in the narrative stories of typically developing 5 year-old Korean Children. Fourteen story stems from the MacArthur Story Stem Battery (MSSB, Bretherton, Oppenheim, & the MacArthur Story Stem Network, 1990) were administered to 156(85 boys and 71 girls) children recruited from 8 Kindergartens in the Seoul and Gyung-gi areas. The children's responses were aggregated into 5 dimensions, based on content themes and performance scores which included emotions expressed and narrative coherence using the MacArthur Narrative Coding System (Robinson, Mantz-Simmions, Macfie, & MacArthur Narrative Working Group, 2004). Data were analyzed by means of cluster analysis. 5 response profiles emerged over the course of this research : Prosocial, Anxiety, Dysregulated aggression, Anxious/Avoidance, and Avoidance profiles. When 14 story stems were grouped into 3 story contexts (stories included interpersonal conflicts, moral conflicts, and empathy) and were analyzed separately according to the story contexts, 3 common profiles (a Prosocial profile, a Constrained profile and an Anxiety profile) emerged across the story contexts, however, there were additional, unique profiles for each of the story contexts.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.48 no.8
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• pp.1-12
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to explore and examine the relationship between mother-child emotional availability and preschoolers' story stem narrative response. Eighty two 4-year-old preschoolers and their mothers participated in this study. This study used the following translated evaluation tools: Emotional Availability Scales(EA, 3rd edition) designed by Biringen and colleagues(1998) to examine the quality of the emotional relationship between mother and her child, and the MacArthur Story Stem Battery(MSSB) developed by Bretherton and colleagues with the MacArthur Narrative Group(1990) to measure preschoolers' narrative responses. The following statistical analyses were preformed descriptive, cluster analysis, and One-way ANOVA. The findings were as follows: First, 4 clusters of the narrative responses of 4-year-old preschoolers were prosocial story tellers, avoidant/dysregulated story tellers, constrained story tellers, and anxious story tellers. Second, the preschoolers in the prosocial cluster showed a high level of mother-child emotional availability and the preschoolers in the avoidant/dysregulated cluster showed a low level of mother-child emotional availability.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.153-171
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• 2015

The purposes of this study were to explore the relations of preschoolers' narrative representation profile types to diurnal cortisol regulation pattern at home. Fourteen story stems from the MacArthur Story Stem Battery (MSSB, Bretherton, et al., 1990) were administered to 40 preschoolers(22 boys, 18 girls, aged 5) recruited from 8 kindergartens in the Seoul and Gyeonggi areas. And also, their saliva cortisol was collected. The children's responses were aggregated into 5 dimensions, based on content themes and performance scores, which included emotions expressed and narrative coherence using the MacArthur Narrative Coding System(Robinson, et al., 2004). Data were analyzed by means of cluster analysis. Five response profiles emerged over the course of this research: Prosocial, Anxiety, Dyregulated aggression, Restricted, and Avoidance profiles. Cortisol at home showed decrease diurnal cortisol regulation patterns, however it showed a difference according to narrative response profiles. Restricted, Prosocial, and Avoidance profiles showed decrease diurnal cortisol regulation patterns. Anxiety profiles showed flat pattern, and Dyregulated aggression profile showed rising diurnal cortisol regulation pattern. These results show the preschoolers' internal representation may affect the diurnal cortisol reaction in daytime.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.75-87
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between the preschoolers' hostile attributional bias and the narrative representation profiles. Forty five 4-year-old preschoolers (24 boys, 21 girls) participated in this study. In order to measure the children's narrative responses, MacArthur Story Stem Battery (MSSB) was used, and "a cartoon-based social perception task" was used to obtain preschoolers' hostile attributional bias. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and cluster analysis. The results were as follows. First, the rate of hostile attributional style of the subjects was 28.89%. Second, four profiles regarding the narrative representations of 4-year olds were found including: Prosocial (33.3%), Constrained (42.2%), Anxious/Restricted (6.7%), and Dysregulated (17.8%). Third, the rate of preschoolers' hostile attributional style differed by the preschoolers' narrative representation profile. Children with a Prosocial profile showed a less hostile attributional style than children with an Anxious/Restricted profile and Dysregulated profile. In conclusion, preschoolers' hostile attributional bias is related to the narrative representation profile.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.153-170
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• 2004

This study explored age and sex differences in preschoolers' narrative representations of their mothers. Subjects were 120 3-, 4-, 5- and 6-year-old children, with 15 boys and 15 girls in each age group. Using the MacArthur Story Stem Battery(Bretherton et al., 1990), observations were made to obtain children's narrative representations of their mothers. content themes and emotional responses. Boys' representations were more negative and less positive than girls' regardless of their age. Boys talked about more aggressive themes and showed more anxiety and less joy. Five and 6-year-old children had less negative and disciplinary representations of their mothers than 3- and 4-year-olds. Six-year-olds showed less prosocial themes than 3- and 5-years, and fewer aggressive themes than 3-and 4-year while they showed less joy, distress and concern responses than 3-years.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.89-110
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• 2005

Subjects were 66 3- to 4-year-old-Children of unemployed mothers from upper middle class families. Attachment behaviors were measured with the Preschool Strange Situation(Cassidy and Marvin, 1992) and classified as secure, avoidant, dependent, or disorganized. Narrative representations of mothers by Children were obtained by video taped interviews using the MacArthur Story-Stem Battery and coded by the MacArthur Narrative Working Group(1997) system. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and t test. Results were that children in the secure group showed more positive representations of their mothers, more prosocial story themes, had higher scores in theme coherence and showed more positive emotional expression than those in the insecure group. The attachment behaviors of the 4 groups(A, B, C, D) were closely correlated with the attachment representations shown in MSSB.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.157-174
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• 2008

This study used the person-oriented approach to explore differences in narrative representations of 97 4-, 5- and 6-year old children (30 foster care, 40 biological family, 17 adopted). Using the MacArthur Story Stem Battery (Bretherton et al., 1990), observations were made to obtain children's narrative representations of content themes and performances. Descriptive statistics, ANOV A and hierarchical cluster analyses were performed. The results of this study were that : (1) Biological family children showed more empathy/helping representations. Foster care children and adopted children showed more anxious representations, and foster care children showed more dysregulated aggression. (2) Four clusters of foster care and adopted children and five clusters of family biological children were found.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.29-47
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of spousal attachment, spousal caregiving, and parental caregiving behaviors on children's parental representations. One hundred and fifteen preschoolers (72 boys and 43 girls, aged between 4-5 years old) and their fathers and mothers participated in this study. The instruments used were the MacArthur Story-Stem Battery (Bretherton, Oppenheim, Buchsbaum, Emde, and the MacArthur Narrative Group, 1990), the Experiences in Close Relationships Scales (Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998), the Caregiving Questionnaire (Kunce & Shaver, 1994), and the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (Rohner, 1991). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling analysis. In conclusion, parents' spousal attachment, spousal caregiving, and parental caregiving behaviors have influenced on children's parental representations.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.65-80
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• 2006

Data were collected from 110 preschoolers, 59 boys, 51 girls (ages 4-5) and their mothers. Peer competence was assessed by the Child Behavior Scale (Birsh & Ladd, 1998) and the Peer Rating Scale (Asher et al., 1979). Children's internal representations were measured by the MacArthur Story-Stem Battery (2004) and coded by the MacArthur Narrative Coding Manual (2004). Maternal parenting behaviors were observed during mother-child interaction at home and analyzed with the Teaching Strategies Rating Scale (Erickson, Sroufe, & Egeland, 1985). Data were analyzed by structural equation modeling analysis. Results confirmed the pathway from maternal parenting behaviors via children's internal representations to peer competence showing a significantly good model fit.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.61-74
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• 2004

Objectives：This study was performed to introduce a psychoeducational family therapy model for the families of schizophrenic patient and to investigate the effect of this model on the changes in coping style and depressive symptoms of the family members, and in perception of emotional support by families and depressive symptoms of patients. Methods：Nine preschool children, 3-5 years old, experiencing physical injuries caused by attack from a psychotic patient at kindergarten, were evaluated for psychological assessments；Intelligence test, MSSB(MacArthur Story-Stem Battery), H-T-P test(House-Tree-Person test). And their parents completed rating scale, KPI-C(Korean Personality Inventory for Children about children’s psychological conditions). Results：With respects to the contents and emotional reactions of MSSB, 9 preschool children showed generally high levels of anxiety, depression, avoidance, aggression, probably related to the traumatic experiences. Even though children couldn't verbally report directly about their traumatic experiences, in both MSSB, structured play narrative assessment tool, and HPT, free drawing and association test, they demonstrated psychiatric problems through reenactment plays, regardless of clinical diagnoses. Conclusion：Present study allowed us the chance to see beyond the outer pathological behaviors of PTSD in preschool children, through deeper evaluations of their mental representation. These preliminary data suggest deep understanding of internal representation would be of help for thorough evaluations and treatment plan for preschool children, experiencing severe trauma.