Article

Mothers’ Positive and Negative Emotional Expressions, Preschoolers’ Emotional Regulation Ability and Problematic Behaviors: A Structural Model Analysis

Author

한지현(Han, Jihyeon),나은영(Na, Eunyeong),이진숙(Lee, Jin Suk)

Information

pp. 237~256 / 2018 Vol.25 No.4

Abstract

The study investigates the effect of mother s positive and negative emotional expression and preschooler s emotional regulation on infant s internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors and to confirm the mediating effects of preschoolers’emotional regulation. We try to establish a structural model of mothers emotional expressions that leads to problematic behaviors through emotional regulation of preschoolers and to examine the validity of these paths. The participants were teachers, mothers and 342 preschoolers between the ages 3-5 in South Korea. Mothers’emotional expression, and the preschoolers’emotional regulation ability and problematic behavior were rated. The results indicated that there was a positive correlation between mothers’positive emotional expression and preschoolers’functional emotional regulation, and between mothers’negative emotional expression and preschoolers’dysfunctional emotional regulation. Mothers negative emotional expression affected preschoolers internalizing and externalizing problem behavior through mediation of the emotional regulation ability of preschoolers. The emotional regulation ability of preschoolers was found to be completely mediated. The results of this study can be used as a theoretical basis for parent education and counseling intervention in order to reduce problem behaviors and emotional regulation ability of preschoolers.

Keywords