본 연구는 자연친화적 교육활동 프로그램을 적용하였을 때 유아의 행복감과 자아개념이 어떠한 변화하는 지를 알아보기 위한 목적으로 이루어졌다. 만 4세 유아 50명을 대상으로 연구를 실시하였다. 실험집단 유아에게는 9주 간 16회의 자연친화적 교육활동을 적용하였고, 비교집단 유아에게는 일상적인 교육과정 운영계획에 따른 교육활동을 실시하였다. 연구에 사용된 측정도구는 유아용 행복척도와 자아개념 검사도구이다. 연구결과 자연친화적 교육활동 프로그램을 적용한 실험집단 유아에게는 행복감과 자아개념 증진에 긍정적 효과가 있었다. 또한 유아의 행복감과 자아개념 점수 간에는 유의미한 정적 상관관계가 있는 것으로 나타났다.
This study intended to promote children's happiness and improve their self-concept when they enjoy and explore nature through nature friendly education activities. They would feel psychologically stable, explore and approach the environment around them more actively, enhance confidence in everything, form a positive self-concept of themselves and others, and feel happy. The research questions were as follows: 1. Are nature friendly education activities effective in increasing children's happiness? 2. Are nature friendly education activities effective in enhancing children's self-concept? Twenty-five children, all of whom were 4 years old, at a kindergarten in C province composed the experimental group, and another 25 children at the same age at a different kindergarten in the same region constituted the control group, which resulted in 50 subjects. The children in the experimental group participated in 16 nature friendly education activities in total, twice a week, for 9 weeks. The results of the study were as follows: 1. The Nature friendly education activities were effective at increasing children's happiness. 2. The Nature friendly education activities were positively effective in enhancing children's self-concept. These results prove that the nature friendly education activities increase children's happiness and they positively affect self-concept development. Also, the nature friendly education activities can be a good means for children to begin living a happy life by constantly improving abilities related to selfconcept, such as skills to satisfy their needs, feeling of joy, social relationship and so on, when this interrelatedness between happiness and self-concept is fully considered.