Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a cyclical empathy model-based empathy enhancement program on young children's empathy, peer competence and emotional intelligence. Methods: A total of 40 subjects were selected for this study from 5-year-old children attending S Day Care Center located in Seoul, out of whom 20 were assigned to an experimental group and the remaining 20 to a comparative group (control group). The SPSS 21 statistical program was used to determine whether there was a significant difference between the two groups in the effectiveness of the program implementation. Results: There were statistically significant differences in the changes between the pre and post scores of the experimental group and the comparative group, which showed that the cyclical empathy model-based empathy enhancement program was effective for the young children's empathy, peer competence and emotional intelligence. Conclusion/Implications: This study suggests that if a young children's empathy enhancement program can be applied to child care sites to help the teachers in the field children can overcome empathy-related difficulties by themselves. This study also provides basic information in order to have meaningful educational experiences in young children's education institutions.