• 한국보육지원학회지
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.1-16
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• 2022

Objective: The purpose of this study is to test the psychometric properties of the Maternal Emotion Coaching Questionnaire (MECQ, Lim et al., 2018) in order to measure emotion coaching in mothers of preschoolers. Methods: A total of 316 preschoolers and their mothers participated in this study. Maternal emotion coaching was assessed by self-report and child emotion regulation ability was evaluated by the teacher. Data were analyzed with chi-square tests, reliability analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, latent profile analysis, and F-test. Results: Each item of the MECQ showed proper discriminative power. The MECQ and each subscale demonstrated adequate internal consistency and split-half reliability. Evidence of construct validity was provided by confirmatory factor analysis. The five-factor model including maternal attention, awareness, acceptance, empathy, and guidance showed a good fit. Results of the latent profile analysis revealed three profiles of emotion coaching: excellent, good, and poor. Preschoolers with mothers in the poor coaching profile showed significantly lower emotion regulation ability compared to those in the excellent or good coaching profiles, which suggested discriminative validity of the MECQ. Conclusion/Implications: The MECQ presents a reliable and valid tool to assess emotion coaching in mothers of preschool children and can thus be effectively used for mothers of preschoolers.