earticle

영어

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of family mealtime on the childrens’school adaptation. This study uses data from the 2012 Survey on Child Education and School Involvement of Parents by the Center for Family-School Partnership Policy Research at Seoul National University. Survey data was collected from 1500 parents with school-aged children. For the data analysis, Chi sqaure test and hierarchical linear regression analyses were conducted. The results of these analyses showed that the numbers of family meals shared averaged 4.26 times per week for breakfast and 4.33 times per week for dinner. There were significant differences in the number of family meals shared together according to school level, residence area, and parent employment status, and household income. In addition, childrens’ school adaptation was significantly different depending on school level, parent gender, parent education, and parent employment status. Finally, according to the hierarchical regression analyses, the number of family meals shared significantly predicted childrens’school adaptation. The greater number of family meals shared, the stronger the childrens' school adaptation. These results indicate that family mealtime has a positive effect on childrens’school adaptation. This study suggests that family mealtime is an indicator of family strength and it needs to guarantee family shared time at least to have a dinner together. This study could provide grounds for making family policy and education policy in order to guarantee family shared time.