The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of marital satisfaction and interparental conflict in multicultural families on peer relationship and emotional intelligence of young children.
For achieving this objective, this study was conducted targeting 60 children of multicultural families and 60 children of Korean families aged three to five selected from preschools and multicultural family support center located in Daegu city and Gyeongsangbuk-do. Marital satisfaction and interparental conflict were assessed by their mothers using Marital Satisfaction Scale(Roach, Frazier & Bowden, 1981) and Cognitive of Marital Satisfaction(Choi, 1994). Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale(Fantuzzo, Coolahan, McDermontt & Sutton-Smith, 1998) and Emotional Intelligence Rating Scale(Kim, 1998) were used for their teachers to measure young children''s peer relationship and emotional intelligence.
The data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, Pearson''s correlation coefficient, Cronbach''s α and simple regression analysis.
The major findings of this study were as follows;
First, there was no effect of marital satisfaction and interparental conflict on Korean young children''s peer relationship. However, there was negative effect of interparental conflict on multicultural young children''s peer relationship.
Second, there was no effect of marital satisfaction and interparental conflict on Korean young children''s emotional intelligence. However, there was positive effect of marital satisfaction on multicultural young children''s emotional intelligence.
In conclusion, multicultural children''s peer relationship and emotional intelligence were more affected by their mothers'' marital satisfaction and interparental conflict than their counterparts'' peer relationship and emotional intelligence.