Young Children’s Mental Health and Teacher–Child Interaction Quality: A Group-Based Mediation Analysis of Teachers’ Positive Guidance Strategies
AUTHOR : 이민아, 이완정
INFORMATION : page. 159~175 / 2025 Vol.32 No.4
ABSTRACT
This study examin the effects of young children’s mental health on the quality of teacher–child interactions and the mediating role of teachers’ positive guidance strategies. Participants were 724 preschoolers in the Seoul metropolitan area. Correlation and mediation analyses were conducted, and additional group-based path analyses were performed by classifying children into normal (66.7%), borderline (15.6%), and risk (17.8%) groups based on their mental health levels. The results showed that, children’s mental health strengths positively influenced the quality of teacher–child interactions both directly and indirectly through teachers’ positive guidance strategies, whereas mental health difficulties had a direct negative effect. In group analysis, children’s difficulties weakened teachers’ positive guidance and interaction quality in the normal group, while in the risk group, difficulties appeared to elicit more positive guidance, enhancing interaction quality. These findings suggest that teachers’ responses vary according to children’s mental health levels and that positive guidance strategies function as a key mediating mechanism influencing the quality of teacher–child interactions across groups.