본 연구의 목적은 전래동화와 이솝우화의 인물에 대한 유아의 반응을 비교하는 것이다. 연구대상은 서울에 있는 세개의 유치원의 유치반에서 무선으로 표집한 160명의 5세와 6세의 유아였다. 각 학급마다 각각 한편의 전래동화와 이솝우화를 구연동화로 들려주고 난 후 개인 면접을 실시하였다. 연구의 결과 첫째, 유아는 이솝우화보다 전래동화에 등장하는 인물들에 대해 더 뚜렷한 선호반응을 보였으며. 둘째, 이솝우화보다 전래동화의 주인공에 더 쉽게, 동일시하는 경향을 나타냈다. 셋째 전래동화와 이솝우화간 유아의 인물 선택기준도 유의한 차이를 보였다.

Stories influence a person as a whole. Good stories provide us with codes of conduct(honesty, courage, kindness) and good examples(King David, Abraham Lincoln). Positing that there is a contrast between fairy tales and Aesop`s fables in terms of ethical codes and characters, this study was conducted to compare young children`s responses to the characters in fairy tales with their responses to those in Aesop`s fables. The subjects were 160 five and six-year old children (80 girls, 80 boys) randomly selected from three kindergartens located in Seoul. Data were collected by interviewing each child after a group story-telling of a fairy tale and an Aesop`s fable. The fairy tales used in this study were Hansel and Gretel and The Sun and the Moon. The fables used for this study were The Fox and the Stork and The Ant and the Glasshopper. The data were analyzed by a chi-square test. The findings of this study are as follows: 1. Children showed stronger feelings of liking and disliking for the characters in fairy tales than for those in Aesop`s fables. 2. Children were more likely to identify with the main characters of fairy tales than with those of Aesop`s fables. 3. There was a distinct difference in some young children`s criteria for liking, disliking, or identifying with the characters of fairy tales and of Aesop`s fables: they tended to judge characters in terms of gender and good/bad behavior in fairy tales and by external features and morality in Aesop`s fables.