Effects of a people care-based song-centered group music program on perceived parental care, self-esteem, peer relationships, and happiness in school-age children.

INTRODUCTION: In the Republic of Korea, the expansion of dual-income households and the nuclearization of families have widened gaps in child care, increasing the role of community care providers; however, how the care they provide is actually perceived by children has rarely been examined. This study developed a People Care-Based Song-Centered Group Music Program that integrates the 10 techniques of interpersonal caring theory into song-centered music activities, and examined its effects on perceived parental care, self-esteem, peer relationships, and happiness in school-age children using a single-group pre-post design. We further explored, as subgroup analyses, the extent to which care was delivered by technique, how outcomes responded at the individual level, and the degree of agreement between children and care providers.

METHODS: Thirty school-age children attending community child centers in Daejeon and Chungcheongnam-do were enrolled. A program developed following the analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation model was delivered in 10 50-min sessions twice weekly. Data were collected 1 week before the program, immediately after, and 2 weeks after completion via self-report questionnaires and analyzed with one-way repeated-measures analysis of variance.

RESULTS: All five outcomes improved significantly across time (all p < 0.001, partial eta-squared 0.80-0.96), and the effects were maintained until 2 weeks after completion. Subgroup analyses revealed three patterns: care delivery differed by technique (praising, forgiving, and accepting rose most, whereas noticing rose least); responder rates differed markedly by outcome (happiness 100% versus self-esteem 40%); and, immediately after the program, care providers rated care significantly higher than children did (difference 0.42 points, p = 0.003), particularly for emotionally oriented techniques.

CONCLUSION: This program may serve as an intervention to enhance the emotional well-being of school-age children in community care settings, and the subgroup findings offer a new perspective on training priorities for care personnel and on the perception gap in emotional care.