Elementary School Children"s Happiness According to the Types of Mother & Peer Attachment and Teacher-Child Conflict Relationship

The purpose of this study was to explore the differences in children"s happiness according to the type of relationships with mother, peer, and teacher. The subjects were 167 children (80 boys, 87 girls; 99 4th graders, 68 5th graders) at one private elementary school in Seoul. Test methods included the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment-Revised(IPPA-R; Armsden & Greenberg, 1987), Teacher-Student Relationship Scale(TSRS; Pianta, 1991), and Happiness Scale for School-aged Korean Children(HSSKC; Choi et al., 2009). The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, cluster analysis, t-test, and one-way ANOVA using the SPSS 23.0 software program. The results showed that the clusters on the IPPA-R and the TSRS could be sorted into four categories" secure/high conflict (peer attachment low & teacher-child conflict high)", "secure/low conflict(peer attachment high & teacher-child conflict low)", and combined (peer attachment medium & teacher-child conflict low)". In addition, significant group differences were found in children"s happiness scores and related sub-domains scores except "extracurricular activities" area.