The Effects of Family Interaction and Peer Interaction in Early Childhood on Children’s Sense of Community: The Mediated Effect of Self-Esteem

This study examines the longitudinal effect of family and peer interactions on children’s sense of community and the mediating role of self-esteem. Data from the 6th, 9th, and 11th Panel Study on Korean Children were used, and data from 977 households were analyzed. The gender of the children was 492 boys (50.4%) and 485 girls (49.6%), and the age of the children was 62.5 months. A structural equation model was analyzed to determine the paths between variables, and bootstrapping was performed to verify the significance of the indirect effect. First, family and peer interactions in early childhood directly influenced the sense of community in elementary school. Second, family and peer interactions in early childhood had an indirect effect on the sense of community in elementary school through the child's self-esteem. This study demonstrates the role of social interaction experience as an early environmental variable and self-esteem as a personal variable to cultivate a sense of community, which is emphasized as a quality of global citizenship.