공격성이 있는 아동은 마음읽기 능력이 낮은가?

Children's aggression and the theory of mind

본 연구는 마음이론(Theory of mind)에 근거하여 유아의 마음을 읽는 능력과 공격성 행동과의 관련성을 알아보기 위해 수행되었다. 이를 위하여 유치원에 재원중인 4, 5세 유아 51명(남아 27명, 여아 24명)을 대상으로 마음읽기과제와 공격성 행동을 측정하였고, 공격성 행동은 유아를 맡고 있는 교사에 의해 평가되었으며 놀이 활동 중에 나타나는 행동을 기술하였다. 마음읽기과제는 마음이론을 구성하는 다양한 인지적 능력을 측정하기 위하여 틀린 믿음과 속임수과제를 실시하였으며 공격성 행동은 직접적 공격성과 관계적 공격성을 측정하였다. T-test 및 상관관계 분석결과, 각 과제 수행에서의 성차는 나타나지 않았으며 마음읽기능력은 공격성 행동과 유의미한 관련성이 있는 것으로 나타났다. 즉 틀린 믿음은 직접적 공격성과 더 높은 부적상관이 있는 것으로 나타났으며 속임수과제는 관계적 공격성과 더 높은 부적상관이 있는 것으로 나타났다. 더 구체적인 인과관계를 알아보고자 구조방정식모델링분석을 실시한 결과, 아동의 낮은 마음읽기 능력은 직접적 공격성 및 관계적 공격성을 예측하는 변인으로 나타났다. 이는 마음읽기 능력이 유아의 또래관계에서 중요한 역할을 하고 있음을 시사한다.

This study aims to verify the effectiveness of mother-child group therapeutic play with purpose of exploring new therapeutic play approached in order to increase interaction between the child care of working mothers and their children who have problem in interacting. The subjects of this study were 5 working mothers who are working for public service and their 5 children at 4 and 5 years old attending the day care centers. All of them participated in group therapeutic play voluntarily. The mother-child group therapeutic play was constructed based on need assessment through interview with working mothers and verification on the face validity for therapeutic play experts and it was performed for 12 sessions in total, 2 session per week. According to results from quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis of this study, implementation of mother-child group therapeutic play increased the interaction between working mothers and their children in positive way. Also in the mother-child interaction, children showed confidence in self-expression, more natural in expressing positive and negative emotions, recognition on the emotions of others, and adjusting their behaviors to the feelings of others. Also in the mother-child interaction, all of such as the tendency of instruction giving by mothers and the acceptance level from children, variation in approachability toward each other as well as bodily contract, and reaction to the action and facial expression of counterpart (between mothers and children) was changed into positiveness. In case of children, such variation factors for interaction were appeared as result of re-experiencing the relationship with mother, mother's change (environmental change), and sympathetic interaction. For mothers, the were appeared as result of modeling and participation, insights on self, change in children. These results may have their significances in terms that they provided a framework that can activate the mother-child therapeutic play far more for many working mothers and their children.