2004, Vol.17, No.4

THE KOREAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 1.67

pISSN : 1229-0718 / eISSN : 2671-6542
https://journal.kci.go.kr/baldal

In this study, the developmental change of object permanence and and its correlation with exploration behavior, cognitive ability perceived by mothers and environmental variables, were investigated through longitudinal design. Subjects were 412 infants and their mothers. Infants were observed when they were 6, 8, 9, 10, and 11-month-old in their home environment. The object permanence by partial occlusion tasks developed progressively from 6-month-old infants to 9-month-old infants. There was not any progression from 9-month-old infants. The object permanence by complete occlusion tasks developed progressively from 8-month-old infants to 10-month-old infants and there was not significant progression from 10-month-old infants. However, The scores from partial occlusion tasks were higher than the scores from complete occlusion tasks in 8, 9, 10-month-old infants and there was no difference between them in 11-month-old infants. According to these results, we can conclude that the object permanence without displacement is completed by 11-month-old infants. The correlation between the scores of object permanence for 6- and 8-month-old and subsequent scores is lower than between the scores of objects permanence for 9-, 10-, and 11-month-old infants. From these results, it can be interpreted that the reliability of object permanence is acquired when infants are 9-month-old. The total scores of object permanence is correlated positively with exploration behavior and cognitive ability, and there is also positive correlation between exploration behavior and cognitive ability. There were scarce positive correlations between objective permanence and environmental variables and also between exploration behavior and environmental variables. However, there was positive correlation between cognitive ability and environmental variables.

This study examined the roles of event knowledge in the early development of planning skills. 120 4-, 5-, 6-year-olds reported either event representation or verbal plans for 2 familiar events, going mart shopping and birthday party. Transcription of the verbal protocols provided the data. Measures of interest included amount of information reported proportion of overlap in master script and plan content, and specific planning components in the event representation or planning condition. The results of this study were 6-year-olds reported more actions than 5-year-olds and 4-year-olds in the event representation condition, whereas 6-year-olds reported more actions than 5-year-olds, and 5-year-olds than 4-year-olds in the planning condition, With increasing age, children reported more information about specific planning activities in their plans then in their event representation, that is, the information reported by children who were reporting plans became more differentiated from the information reported by children who were recounting scripts. The implications of results are that young children's planning skills may emerge and develop in familiar event contexts in which children can use generalized event representation to support their cognitive activities involved in planning for real-world events.

This study examines the characteristics and problems found in the behaviors of Korean young children. We studied a total of 842 children (467 boys and 375 girls) in 6 day care centers and kindergartens located in Seoul: 50 aged below 3, 132 aged 4, and 280 aged 5. For instrument, K-BASC (Korean Behavior Assessment System for Children) was used which was adapted and validated by Lee et al.(2003) from BASC (Behavior Assessment System for Children) developed by Kamphaus and Reynolds (1992) to evaluate behaviors of young children aged between 2.5 and 5. Results show that mothers' educational level is positively correlated with children's attention problem and social skills. Children of working mothers showed higher social skills. First-born children showed more problems of depression, anxiety, aggression, and internalization. In terms of gender, boys were found having more problems of aggression, hyperactivity, externalization, and attention problem, while girls showed more problems of depression and atypical behavior. In terms of age, older children showed less problems of aggression, externalization, depression, atypical behavior, hyperactivity, and withdrawl. For the correlations among the attributes of problems, depression was found highly associated with internalization and externalization among both boys and girls. In particular, the attribute of hyperactivity was significantly associated with externalization. About 3 to 4% of the children were found needing special intervention for their behaviors in the future.