유아의 자기조절력에 대한 어머니의 긍정적 양육태도와 아버지 양육참여의 상대적 영향력

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore parental factors that influence preschoolers’ self-regulation and to analyze the relative influence of mothers' positive parenting attitudes and fathers' parenting involvement on self-regulation subfactors. Self-regulation is an important foundational skill for preschoolers’ emotional stability and social adjustment, which is shaped by their interactions with their parents. Previous studies have shown that mothers' affectionate and autonomous parenting attitudes and fathers' substantial parenting involvement are positively related to preschoolers’ self-regulation. This study aims to analyze the influence of each of these subfactors in detail and to provide implications for parenting strategies and parent education to promote self-regulation in early childhood by establishing parental variables that reflect realistic parenting structures. The survey included 316 mothers with children aged 3 to 5 years old, with a high proportion of girls and the largest number of toddlers aged 4 years old. Birth order was most often an only child, and if there were siblings, responses were primarily based on the first child. Parents were mostly in their 30s, most had a college degree or higher, fathers were mostly employed, and mothers were a mix of employed and stay-at-home parents. A subset of the subpopulation was excluded to ensure the reliability of the analysis, and the final analysis was based on 304 participants. The study found that both mothers' positive parenting attitudes and fathers' parenting involvement had significant effects on preschoolers’ self-regulation. In particular, mothers' autonomous parenting attitudes had greater effects on self-determination and behavioral inhibition, and affectionate attitudes had greater effects on self-evaluation and emotionality, while fathers' parenting involvement was strongly associated with behavioral inhibition, self-determination, and self-evaluation. The relative influence analysis showed that paternal involvement was more influential than maternal positive parenting attitudes overall, especially in self-evaluation and emotionality. This study suggests the need for customized parenting education based on parental roles and institutional and social support to promote fathers' actual parenting involvement in order to improve preschoolers’ self-regulation. However, the study was based on mothers living in a specific geographical area, and the gender imbalance and reliance on mothers' subjective assessments limit the generalizability of the results. Nevertheless, this study has academic and practical significance in that it analyzed the relationship and relative influence of parental variables on self-regulation subfactors and empirically confirmed that paternal involvement in parenting is an independent and key contributing factor to infant development.