Relationship satisfaction and emotional change between parents and children through the agro-healing program

Abstract

Background and objective: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of an agro-healing program on the relationship satisfaction and emotional change between parents and children. Methods: We sent an official letter to D Office of Education with information and recruitment for the agro-healing program. Then D Office of Education has sent the official letter to elementary schools under the jurisdiction to recruit parents who were willing to participate in the programs with their children. The subjects were recruited by order of application, and 27 families participated, but 20 parent-child teams who attended all sessions and fully participated in the program were ultimately selected. From October 12 to November 16, 2019, a total of 6 sessions of the programs were held once a week at a care farm in Gyeongsangbuk-do. In the morning, they participated in a program that utilizes the resources of plants and animals in the care farm, and later participated in an indoor horticultural program in the afternoon. Results: In the parent-child relationship satisfaction test, it was found that communication was significantly increased after participating in the agro-healing program (p = .047). There were no statistically significant changes in the sentence completion tests written by the children, but their potential perception or attitude towards their parents changed more positively than before according to the content of the sentences. Conclusion: The agro-healing program could strengthen the relationship between parent and child by improving the parent-child relationship satisfaction and children’s emotional attitude towards their parent.