• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.21 no.7
• /
• pp.453-461
• /
• 2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating effects of young children's playfulness between the children's peer competence and their mothers' play beliefs. For this study, 160 mothers and 160 children aged 4-5 years who were in kindergarten and daycare centers in Area J were selected. The collected data were analyzed based on correlation and mediation using SPSS Statistics. The research results are as follows. First, as a result of analyzing the relationship between the young children's peer competence and playfulness and their mothers' play beliefs, there was a statistically significant positive correlation between a mother's play-support beliefs and their children's peer competence and playfulness. On the other hand, the relationship between a mother's learning-support beliefs and her child's peer competence and playfulness was not significant. There was a significant positive correlation between playfulness and peer competence in the young children. Second, as a result of verifying the mediating effect of the children's playfulness in the relationship between their mothers' play-support belief and the children's peer competence, we found that playfulness has a partial mediating role.

• Korean Journal of Child Education & Care
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.59-73
• /
• 2019

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the moderating effect of mothers' play support beliefs on the relation between mothers' insecure attachment and children's playfulness. Methods: The research participants of this study include 254 children aged 3 to 5, who attended kindergartens and day care centers located in Seoul, Gyeonggi and Chung-cheong, and their 254 mothers. For data analyses, descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation and hierarchical multiple regression were conducted using SPSS 23.0 program. Results: First, there was negative association between mothers' insecure attachment and play support beliefs. Social spontaneity and expression of joy were negatively related to mothers' insecure attachment. However, mothers' play support beliefs showed positive associations with children's playfulness, particularly including children's physical spontaneity and expression of joy. In addition, mothers' play support beliefs moderated the relation between mothers' insecure attachment and children's expression of joy. However, the beliefs did not moderate the relation between mothers' insecure attachment and other playfulness traits. Conclusion/Implications: The findings of the present study indicate that mothers' understanding of the importance of play may buffer the adverse effect of mothers' insecure attachment on children's capabilities of expressing their sense of pleasure.