원예활동이 유아의 정서지능과 식물 선호도에 미치는 영향

This study examined the effectiveness of horticultural activities on the emotional intelligence and plant preferences of children and verified the effectiveness of the program to improve plant preferences and grow into children with correct emotions in modern society with less contact with nature. The participants were 15 people aged 5 years old and 15 and 15 people aged 7 years old. The horticultural activity program was organized after discussion with one professor of horticultural and one Ph.D. in horticultural by applying the Nuri-Curriculum to improve emotional intelligence and plant preference. A total of 10 sessions were conducted once a week for 40 minutes. The analysis used IBM SPSS Statistics 25 and the pre-homogeneity test confirmed that it was a homogeneous group. Preand post-examinations were conducted to verify the effectiveness of the horticultural activity program, and the total score of emotional intelligence increased significantly from 15.1 points for 5 year olds to 16.89 points (p = .001) and 15.24 points for 7 year olds to 17.1 points (p = .000). The total score of plant preference could be confirmed by the age of 5 that the score was increased from 2.99 to 3.51, but there was no statistically significant difference. In the case of age 7, a significant increase was found from 3.44 to 3.95 points (p = .003). As a result, we confirmed that gardening programs have a positive impact on emotional intelligence and plant preferences in children.