International Journal of Human Ecology

The Korean Home Economics Association (대한가정학회)
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Korean Mothers' Ideal and Actual Parenting Behaviors Toward their Young Children as a Function of Child Gender, Age, and Birth Order

  • Park, Sung-Yun (Dept. of Consumer Science & Human Development, College of Human Ecology, Ewha Womans University) ;
  • Kim, Min-Jung (Dept. of Consumer Science & Human Development, College of Human Ecology, Ewha Womans University)
  • Published : 2006.12.30
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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine mothers' ideal and actual parenting behaviors toward their infants in three parenting domains; social, didactic, and limit setting. A total of 264 mothers of young children under age three from Seoul, Korea completed Parental Style Questionnaires (PSQ). Mothers' self report on their ideal and actual parenting were explored as a function of child sex, age, and birth order. As expected, there were significant differences between mothers' ideal and actual behaviors in all three parenting domains: Mothers' ideal behaviors such as social interaction, didactic interaction and limit setting were higher than those of their actual behaviors. For mothers' ideal parenting, results revealed neither significant main effects nor interaction effects. However, the Parenting Domain x Birth-Order 2-way interaction and the Parenting Domain x Child Age 2-way interaction were significant for mothers' actual behaviors. Specifically, mothers reported more social and didactic behaviors with their first-born than later born children, but not for limit setting behavior. It was also found that higher limit setting behaviors were apparent for their 2- and 3-year-old than 1-year old children whereas lower social interactions were found for 3-year-old than for 1-year-old. In light of universality and uniqueness, mothers' parenting behavior toward young children has been discussed.

Keywords

References

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