The Relationship Between Young Children's Temperament and Emotional Regulation: The Mediating Role of Parenting Sense of Competence

유아의 기질과 정서조절능력 간의 관계: 어머니 양육효능감의 매개적 역할

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between young children's temperament, emotional regulation ability and mother's parenting sense of competence. Methods: The participants were comprised of 315 young children who attend a kindergarten or day care center and their mothers from Seoul, Inchon, and Gyeonggi-do Province. They completed questionnaires on temperament, emotion regulation ability, and parenting sense of competence. The data were analyzed by frequency analysis, Cronbach's ${\alpha}$, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and multiple regression analysis. Results: It was observed that young children's regularity/adaptability was positively correlated with sense of competence as a parent and young children's emotional regulation. Young children's regularity/adaptability was negatively correlated with dissatisfaction as a parent and young children's emotional instability/negativity. Sense of competence as a parent was positively correlated with young children's emotional regulation and negatively correlated with young children's emotional instability/negativity. In addition, it was further found that the mother's parenting sense of competence tended to play a perfectly/partially mediating role between young children's temperament and young children's emotional regulation ability respectively. Conclusion/Implications: These results clearly indicated that parenting sense of competence plays a crucial role between young children's temperament and emotional regulation.