The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of mothers’ parenting efficacy and children’s social and
emotional competence in multicultural families in rural areas. The subjects of this study were 12 children (aged 3 to
7) and their 12 mothers in multicultural families in rural areas. They were assigned to the experimental group or the
control group, each of which consisted of six mother-child pairs. The mother-child filial therapy program was applied
to the experimental group exclusively for 4 hours every Monday over 5 weeks. After 4 weeks, the effects of the
program were measured by comparing the pretest scores and posttest scores. The results of this study are as follows.
First, the filial therapy program had a partially significant effect on mothers’ parenting efficacy in multicultural
families in rural areas. Especially, the subfactors of parenting efficacy and mothers’ sense of parenting competence
increased significantly after the program. Second, the filial therapy program also had a partially significant effect on
the children’s social and emotional competence at their preschool. Compared to the level of the children’s prosocial
behavior on the pretest, the level of their prosocial behavior on the posttest was significantly higher. Also, after the
program, the level of externalizing behavior problems on the post-test was significantly lower compared with the level
on the pretest. In conclusion, these results show that the filial therapy program has a very positive effect on the
mothers’ parenting efficacy and the children’s social and emotional competence inmulticultural families.