Recently, the social problems due to a wide range of changes such as increasing women’s social participation are deepening, which is lowering the value of parents in the way that was not seen in the traditional family system: inappropriate attitudes of parents and poor recognition of the qualifications of parents. These changes have a negative effect on the growth and development of children: child''s maladaptive behavior, interpersonal relationship problems and emotional problems. Unlike the past when it was believed mothers were responsible for raising children, the role of father becomes more important, which, in turn, increases the importance of father education. Thus, the appropriate prospective parents education is essential to the development of children and healthy family relationship. However, the studies on prospective parents education for only fathers have been seldom conducted.
Thus, this study aims to investigate the effect of the prospective parents education program on the enhancement of father’s empathy ability and the improvement of children''s behavioral problems by conducting the prospective parents education program using Filial Therapy which was developed by Guerney (1964) and translated and modified by Chang. Mi Gyoeng(1998), targeting male college students, prospective parents.

In this study, the following research questions are established.

1. Will the participation of male college students in the prospective parents education program using filial therapy improve the empathy ability of male college students?
2. Will the participation of male college students in the prospective parents education program using filial therapy will improve children’s behavioral problems?
3. How does the empathy ability of male college students who participates in the prospective parents education program using filial therapy?

To verify the research questions as above, Measurement of Empathy in Adult-Child Interaction(MEACI) developed by Stover (1972) and Korean Child Behavior Checklist(K-CBCL), which was the standardized and translated version of Child Behavior Checklist(CBCL), developed by Achenbach and Edelbrock (1983), by Oh, Gyoeng Ja, Lee, Hye Ryeon, Hong, Gang Ui, and Ha, Uen Hye (1997) were used.
This study, based on ex ante-ex post control group design, targeted 7 male college students in College A and B in Choongchungdo and 7 children, respectively as target group. The control group also consisted of 7 male college students and 7 children. A total of 8 group sessions were conducted over 8 weeks, one session pre month, and pre-test before the program and post-test after the program were conducted.
A non-parametric method Wilcoxon Rank Sum-Test was conducted to examine the ex ante-ex post significance in empathy ability and behavioral problems by using SPSS 15.0. Furthermore, the materials that recorded the process of program were transcribed to build DB and the details of changes were stated for the qualitative analysis of empathy ability.

The findings of this study can be summarized as follows.

First, in the test group participating the prospective parents education program targeting male college students, the empathy ability of male college students significantly improved compared to the control group that did not participate in the program. This results agree with the study by Chang, Mi Gyeong and Lim, Won Shin(2004) demonstrating the improved empathy ability of male college students through the prospective parents education program by using filial therapy and the study by Kwon, Young Joo(2006) and Hong, Ju Hwa (2011) about the effect of the interaction between fathers and children in filial therapy. The results demonstrate that the prospective parents education program targeting male college students by using filial therapy has a positive effect on the improvement of empathy ability for children.
Second, in the test group participating the prospective parents education program targeting male college students, the children’s behavioral problems have improved compared with the children in the control group. These results agree with the results of the study by Chang, Mi Gyeong and Lim, Won Shin(2004) that verified the effect of the prospective parents eduction program using filial therapy on children’s behavioral problems and the results of the study by Kim, Young Ran(2010) about the effect of the filial therapy targeting the handicapped children. These results demonstrated that the filial therapy has a positive effect on the improvement of children’s behavioral problems.

Prospective parents education programs have diversified, yet are likely to be just one-off event; and the education programs that can be used to raise children lack. Thus, the learning of children-rearing pattern and how to interact with children from this study targeting male college students by using filial therapy is expected to make contributions to building a positive relationship with children, and in this regard, the this study has significance.