# Situation: The nurse at a public elementary school clinic works with pupils from grades 1 to 6 and their parents. A mother wants her 9-year-old daughter to read books at home. Both parents watch videos on their phones every evening, and they often remind the girl that reading is important for school. Based on Bandura's social learning theory, which change should the nurse suggest FIRST?

> source: MyMerci (mymerci.kr)  
> url: https://mymerci.kr/pages/nclex_q.php?qn_id=629621  
> language: ko  
> subject: Nursing Practice II — Maternal and Child Health Nursing

## 문제

Situation: The nurse at a public elementary school clinic works with pupils from grades 1 to 6 and their parents.

A mother wants her 9-year-old daughter to read books at home. Both parents watch videos on their phones every evening, and they often remind the girl that reading is important for school. Based on Bandura's social learning theory, which change should the nurse suggest FIRST?

## 보기

1. Let her see her parents reading during the evening **✔ 정답**
2. Remind her more often that reading will raise her grades
3. Give her a small prize for each book she finishes
4. Limit her own video time to one hour on school nights

**정답: 1**

## 해설

Bandura's social learning theory holds that children learn behaviors mainly by observing models, especially important adults. Here the parents' behavior (watching videos) contradicts their words, and children tend to copy what models do rather than what they say. Changing what the parents model comes first; reminders, prizes, and limits on her own screen time work against a model that shows the opposite.

## 심화 해설

Social learning theory and the power of modeling

Bandura’s social learning theory explains that children acquire behaviors primarily through observational learning—watching and imitating models, especially parents and other significant adults. The key mechanism is not what the model says, but what the model *does*. When a parent says “reading is important” while consistently scrolling through videos, the child receives two competing messages. Behavior that is modeled repeatedly is far more likely to be copied than behavior that is only verbally instructed. The daughter observes that the adults in her home choose screens over books, and that observed choice becomes the real lesson.

Watch out! Verbal reminders and rewards are forms of operant conditioning, not social learning. They can shape behavior, but they are weak when the modeled behavior contradicts them. A prize for finishing a book competes against the nightly visual evidence that screens are what adults actually prefer.

Why changing the parents’ behavior comes first

The most powerful intervention is to change the model. If the parents read during the evening, the child sees reading as a normal, valued adult activity—not just a school task imposed on children. This aligns with the core principle that imitative learning is strongest when the model is warm, competent, and similar to the observer. Parents are the most influential models in a 9-year-old child’s life.

The research evidence supports this direction. A study of parental phubbing—the habit of ignoring a child while attending to a phone—found that parental screen-focused behavior was negatively associated with children’s developmental outcomes, and the authors explicitly drew on social learning theory to explain the mechanism [1]. When parents model screen use, children learn that screens are the default adult behavior. The same logic applies to reading: parents who model reading teach reading as the default.

Comparing the four options through the social learning lens

| Option | Mechanism | Why it is not the first choice |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1. Let her see her parents reading | Modeling—the core of social learning theory | This is the correct first step; it changes the observed behavior |
| 2. Remind her more often | Verbal instruction, not modeling | Words are weak when the model contradicts them |
| 3. Give a small prize per book | Positive reinforcement (operant conditioning) | Rewards cannot overpower a daily modeled opposite behavior |
| 4. Limit her own video time | Environmental control of the child’s behavior | Does not change the parents’ modeled behavior; the child still sees adults choosing screens |

Key point! In social learning theory, the intervention target is the *model*, not the *learner*. Asking the child to read while the parents watch videos is like asking someone to follow a map while the guide walks in the opposite direction. The nurse’s first suggestion should therefore be to make the parents’ reading behavior visible to the daughter during the evening, because the most reliable predictor of a child’s voluntary reading is seeing significant adults read for their own enjoyment. The phubbing research reinforces that parental screen behavior is a powerful social cue that children internalize [1].References (research sources)

- [1]The relationship between parental phubbing and preschool children's social-emotional competence: a serial mediation model of family intimacy and parent-child attachment.Research articleLiu J, Rong J, Zhu L, Zhang Y. (2026) · DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1850205

## 임상 시나리오

Modeling Reading at HomeBandura's social learning theory in parent education
Children learn primarily through observational learning, imitating what significant adults do rather than what they say. When parents tell a child to read but spend evenings on phones, the child receives competing messages and copies the observed behavior.

The first intervention is to change the model. If parents read during the evening, the child sees reading as a normal, valued adult activity rather than a school task imposed only on children.

CautionVerbal reminders, prizes, and screen-time limits rely on operant conditioning and are weak when the modeled behavior contradicts them. Do not prioritize these before addressing what the child observes.

## 핵심 개념

- **Observational learning** — Learning that occurs through watching and imitating the behavior of others, especially significant models such as parents.
- **Modeling** — Demonstrating a behavior that others observe and may imitate; in Bandura's theory, the model's actions matter more than their words.
- **Operant conditioning** — Learning through consequences such as rewards or punishments; distinct from social learning, which emphasizes imitation of observed behavior.
- **Social learning theory** — Bandura's framework stating that people learn behaviors by observing models, with imitation strongest when the model is warm, competent, and similar to the observer.
- **Competing messages** — When verbal instructions contradict modeled behavior, the observed behavior is more likely to be imitated than the spoken instruction.

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