AUTHOR : 나한아, 김재희, 김현경
INFORMATION : page. 183~204 / 2020 Vol.27 No.2
Children’s emotion-regulation skills have long lasting implications on their adjustment including their psychosocial adjustment and academic achievement in childhood, adolescence and beyond. The sheer amount of time young children spend in child care centers has been significantly increasing in Korea over the past few years, which has raised concerns about the ensuing effects on young children’s development, especially their emotion-regulation skills. The present study examined the extent to which children’s time spent in child care centers influenced their emotion-regulation skills directly and indirectly through mother-child and teacher-child relationships. A total of 384 mothers of children aged 3-6 years (186 boys and 198 girls) and their teachers in three child care centers in Changwon, Gyeongsangnam-do Province in Korea participated in the study. Data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 and Mplus 7. The findings indicated, first, that the hours spent in child care centers did not directly influence children’s emotion-regulation skills. Second, the number of hours children spent in child care centers significantly and negatively influenced mother-child relationships but did not influence teacher-child relationships. Third, both mother-child and teacher-child relationships significantly and positively influenced children’s emotion-regulation skills. Additionally, children’s time spent in child care centers indirectly influenced their emotion-regulation skills through poor mother-child relationships. That is, children who spent relatively more hours in child care centers tended to have poor mother-child relationships, which subsequently led to poor emotion-regulation skills. It was found that teacher-child relationships were not significant as a mediator. The present study showed that time spent in child care centers did not directly influence but indirectly influenced children’s emotion-regulation by compromising mother-child relationships. These findings highlight the importance of parenting programs that are aimed at promoting mother-child relationships to facilitate children’s healthy development.