The Relation between Mothers' Interaction strategies and Self-Regulation of Young Children

Vygotsky의 발달이론에 따른 어머니의 상호작용전략과 유아의 자기판단력과의 관계분석

This study was designed to investigate the relation between mother's interaction strategies and self-regulation of young children from a Vygotskian perspective. The hypotheses of this study were: 1) The self-regulation of young children will improve with increase in age, 2) the use of mothers' interaction strategies will increase as child's age decreases, 3) mothers' directiveness in the mother-child interaction depends on the age of child and socio-economic level, and 4) mothers' directiveness in the mother-child interaction will have negative relationship with child's self-regulation. The subjects of this study were 60 mother-child dyads with three different age-of-child groups (3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds). They were further divided into higher and lower socio-economic groups. A puzzle task was used for the measurement of self-regulation. The task consisted of two identical puzzles with one used as the model. The collected data were analyzed by ${\chi}^2$, one-way and two-way analysis of variance, and Pearson's r. Self-regulation of the young children improved with increase in age (P < .05). The use of mothers' interaction strategy decreased as the children's age increased (P < .05). Mothers' directiveness in the mother-child interaction was influenced by the age of child (P < .01) and by socioeconomic level (P < .05). There was a negative correlation (r=-.848) between the mothers' directiveness in the mother-child interaction and the child's self-regulation (P < .001).