어머니의 성인애착과 공감능력이 유아의 사회적 유능감에 미치는 영향

Effects of Mother's Attachment and Empathy on Social Competence in Young Children

The purpose of this study was to examine effects of mother's attachment and empathy on social competence in young children. Subjects of this study were 298 mothers of young children aged 3-5 years old attending 8 kindergartens located in Chungbuk province. The results of this study were as follows: First, mother's secure attachment had a direct effect on mother's cognitive empathy. Mother's insecure attachment had a direct effect on mother's behavioral empathy while mother's avoidant attachment did on mother's agitated emotional empathy. Second, mother's cognitive, behavioral and agitated emotional empathy had direct effects on young children's positive social competence. However, mother's agitated emotional empathy only had a direct effect on negative social competence. Third, mother's cognitive, behavioral, and agitated emotional empathy had mediated the effect of mother's attachment on young children's positive social competence. However, there were no mediated effect of mother's empathy on negative social competence.