Play Behavior of Korean-American and American Young Children
Hong, Suk Ran Choi
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/69212
Description
Title
Play Behavior of Korean-American and American Young Children
Author(s)
Hong, Suk Ran Choi
Issue Date
1988
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Spodek, Bernard
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Education, Early Childhood
Education, Educational Psychology
Abstract
Children's play behavior during free play in classrooms was observed in order to understand the differences in the play behavior of preschool children with Korean-American and American backgrounds. The subjects were thirty-two Korean-American and thirty-two American children from middle class family. The data were collected in the preschool located in two university communities using time-sampling technique. The study focused on the difference in levels of social and cognitive play behavior as well as the difference in choices of playmates and activity centers.
The results of the observation provided several insights into the play behavior of children in the culturally-mixed classes. It is clear that there were differences in the social and cognitive play behavior, in choosing activity centers and in choosing playmates among children with different ethnic backgrounds and different gender. However, none of the overall interactions involving both ethnicity and gender were significant, indicating that these two factors contributed independently to the behavioral differences. Specific effects of ethnicity and gender in the various categories of play were reported separately.
Although the results of the present study increased the understanding of the ethnic and gender differences, limitations to the generalizability of these findings should be noted. First, the observations were conducted only in classroom settings. The children's play behavior could have been different in other environments, such as home, playgrounds or neighborhood. Second, the children participated in this study was limited to Korean-Americans and Americans from middle-class backgrounds. The addition of children with different ethnic backgrounds (such as, Arabian, Latin American, etc.) may alter the results.
A cross-sectional method was utilized in this study in which children were observed only during the limited period of time. Considering children's rapid social and cognitive growth, a longitudinal study in which a particular individual is followed along their development may add to the understanding of social and cognitive development of children's play behavior.
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