Influence of Teacher-Child Relationship on Emotional and Behavioral Strengths of Preschool Children: The Moderating Effect of Preschoolers’s Effortful Control
AUTHOR : 신수아,정가윤
INFORMATION : page. 19~34 / 2018 Vol.25 No.2
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences in the effects of child-teacher relationships
and preschoolers' effortful control on their emotional-behavioral competence and to exam the moderating
effect of effortful control on the connection between child-teacher relationships and emotional-behavioral
competence. A total of 424 four and five-year-olds participated in the study. For data analysis, SPSS
Version 21.0 was used. The results of the study were as follows. First, there were significant gender
differences across all of the variables. The scores for girls were significantly higher than those for boys.
Second, for boys, effortful control showed the largest effect on emotional-behavioral competence, followed
by child-teacher relationship; whereas for the girls, the order was reversed. Third, both boys and girls
showed significant moderating effects of effortful control on the relationship between the teacher-child
relationship and emotional-behavioral competence, indicating the importance of effortful control in
preschoolers. In addition, boys were more influenced by effortful control than by child-teacher relationship,
suggesting the importance of personal, individual aspects ahead of relational factors. On the other hand,
girls showed influence of effortful control was relatively lower for them than child-teacher relationships,
suggesting the importance of context and relationships in their development.