• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.44 no.11
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• pp.23-34
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to examine: (1) how mothers generally react to children's negative emotions; (2) whether there were relationships between children's temperament and mothers' reactions to children's negative emotions; (3) whether there were relationships between mothers' depression and parenting stress, and their reactions to children's negative emotions; (4) whether there were relationships between mothers' reactions to children's negative emotions and children's behavior problems; and (5) whether there were relationships between mothers' reactions to children's negative emotions and children's social competence. The subjects were 246 preschoolers and their mothers. It was found that emotion-focused socialization and problem-focused socialization were the most frequently used reactions by mothers to cope with children's negative emotions. Relationships between children's temperament and mothers' reactions to children's negative emotions, those between mothers' depression and parenting stress and their reactions to children's negative emotions, those between mothers' reactions to children's negative emotions and children's behavior problems, and those between mothers' reactions to children's negative emotions and children's social competency were all partially significant. Sex differences were found in some of the relationships found significant.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.83-102
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• 2017

Objective: This study investigates the main effects and interaction effects of mother's reactions to young children's negative emotions on the children's problem behaviors. Methods: A total of 346 mothers with toddlers completed questionnaires, the data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple regression. Results: First, mothers' supportive response to young children's negative emotions, including expressive encouragement, emotion-focused reactions, and problem-focused reactions, showed negative relations with the children's internal and external problem behaviors. Mothers' unsupportive response to children's negative emotions, including distress reactions, minimization reactions, and punitive reactions, showed positive relations with the children's internal and external problem behaviors. Second, an interactive effect was observed. For external problem behavior, mothers' lower distress reactions accompanied by higher emotion-focused reactions, lower punitive reactions accompanied by higher emotion-focused reactions, lower distress reactions accompanied by higher problem-focused reactions, and lower punitive reactions accompanied by higher problem-focused reactions all decreased children′s problem behavior. However, for internal problem behavior, only mothers' lower distress reactions accompanied by higher emotion-focused reaction decreased children′s problem behavior. Conclusion/Implication: The main interaction effect on mothers' reaction to young children's negative emotional expression shows that preventive intervention is needed to address problem behavior.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.455-463
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to compare Korean mothers' and fathers' reactions to their children's negative emotions. The survey with questionnaire was performed with 179 mothers and 179 fathers of children aged three to five-years-old from three child care centers in Seoul and Kyoungki Province. Parental emotion-related practices regarding children's negative emotions were assessed with an adaptation of the CCNES-R(Cortes, 2002), and parental reactions were categorized as problem-focused, emotion-focused, expressive encouragement, emotion-teaching, punitive, parental distress and minimizing. The main results were as follows. First, Korean mothers and fathers, in general, used more positive reactions than negative reactions when their children showed negative emotions, in particular problem-focused reactions were mostly used. In addition, Korean mothers were significantly higher than fathers on problem-focused and emotion-teaching reactions. Second, Korean mothers' and fathers' reactions to their children's negative emotions were significantly different depending on the educational level of mothers, mothers' job and fathers' job. But there was no significant differences in parent's reactions according to children's sex and age. The findings in this study provide implication for an association between parent's reactions to children's negative emotions and parent's socioeconomic background.

• Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.139-158
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• 2013

The present study investigated the direct and interactive effects of children's temperament and mothers' reactions to hypothetical vignettes of children's aggression on 3- to 6-year-old children's overt aggression (OA) and relational aggression (RA). A total of 317 mothers of 3- to 6-year-old children and 26 teachers from eight day-care centers and kindergartens were contacted. Each mother reported her child's background, assessed her child's temperament and responded to the Mothers' Reaction to Hypothetical Vignettes of Children's Aggression (MRCA) scale. Children's OA and RA were assessed by teachers. Results showed that high levels of children's surgency predicted children's OA and RA. Although mothers' reactions did not predict children's OA and RA directly, significant interactions indicated that mothers' restrictive reactions were more strongly related to children's OA for children with high levels of surgency and low levels of effortful control. In addition, mothers' responsive reactions were more strongly related to children's OA for children with low levels of surgency. This study demonstrates that relative contributions of children's temperament and mothers' reactions differ according to the form of children's aggression. It also shows that certain types and levels of mothers' reactions to children's aggressive behavior can be critical for children with certain types and levels of temperament in developing children's overt aggression. The findings of this study can be applied to building early prevention and future intervention programs for young children's aggression.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.39-56
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• 2012

This study aims at exploring Korean mothers' beliefs on the development of emotion of their children. In specific, sensitivity and maternal reactions to their children's both negative and positive emotion expressions were explored. Further, associations among maternal sensitivity, maternal reactions and child emotion regulation were examined. A total of 100 Korean mothers whose children were between 6 and 7 years old participated in the study. In order to assess mothers' beliefs about sensitivity, vignettes in a forced-choice format were presented through individual interviews. Mothers' self reported reactions to their children's negative emotions and positive emotions and mothers' perceptions of children's emotion regulation were assessed using questionnaires. Results revealed that Korean mothers endorsed both proactive and reactive sensitivity. However, their sensitivity differed depending on the situation. Mothers tended to endorse either Emotion Focused or Problem Focused reactions to their children's negative emotions. Mothers reported that they were most likely to restrict their child positive emotional expression with explanation in supportive way followed by invalidating through reprimanding it. Mothers' reported Distress Reactions and Punitive Reactions to children's expression of negative emotion were associated with children's liability whereas Emotion-Focused Reaction and Problem-Focused Reaction were associated with children's functional emotion regulation. The results are discussed within a theoretical framework of socialization of emotions.

• Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.47-57
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• 2016

This study investigated whether Korean mothers' emotion socialization beliefs are related to emotional functioning in children differing across gender. We interviewed Korean mothers (N = 100) of first graders (55 boys; 45 girls) about their sensitivity, their reactions to children's distress, and children's emotion regulation. Two components of emotion regulation were distinguished: regulation and negativity. Results revealed that mothers' proactive sensitivity and their supportive reactions were related to their children's regulation, whereas unsupportive reactions were related to children's negativity. Child gender moderated the associations between mothers' socialization beliefs and children's emotion regulation: mothers' proactive sensitivity was more strongly associated with competent regulation in girls than in boys. Mothers' unsupportive reactions were related to increased negativity only in girls. Results are discussed from a cultural perspective, focusing on gender differences in the links between maternal socialization and children's emotional outcomes in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.13-24
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• 2012

This study examined the effects of mothers' reactions toward children's negative emotion as well as mothers' emotional expressivity on children's social withdrawal. 206 children (103 boys, 103 girls; aged 4-5 years old) and their mothers participated in the study. Mothers reported their reactions to their child's negative emotion along with their expressivity. The teachers completed a rating scale to measure children's social withdrawal. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's productive correlation coefficient, and hierarchical multiple regressions. The results showed a relation between mothers' distress reactions and punitive responses and children's social withdrawal. A mother's positive expressivity was negatively related to a child's social withdrawal. A hierarchical regression analysis indicated that the effects of mothers' punitive responses and minimization responses on children's withdrawal were moderated by a mother's positive expressivity. Mothers' punitive responses and minimization responses were positively associated with children's social withdrawal, especially for children who had the lowest level of mother's positive expressivity.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.197-206
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to investigate mothers' reactions to their children's negative emotions. The subject were 145 children(three to six-year-olds) and the instruments were Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale by Eisenberg(1992) and Temperament Rating Scale by Chun(1992). The main results were as follows； First, mothers, in general, used more positive reactions than negative reactions when their children showed negative emotions. Mothers' education, job, family type and income affected mothers' type of reactions to their children's negative emotions. Mothers' reactions to their children's negative reaction emotions were associated with their children's temperament but not with their children's age, sex and birth order.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2019

Objective: This study examined the effects of mothers' reactions to children's negative emotions on the children's social power through children's emotional regulation ability. Methods: A total of 339 four-year and five- year old preschoolers, and their mother and teachers in Seoul and Gyeongi participated in the study. Data were analyzed by path analysis using AMOS 21.0 program. Results: The results were as follows: First, mothers' reactions to children's negative emotions were significantly related to children's emotional regulation ability and social power. Also, children's emotional regulation ability was significantly associated with children's social power. Second, mothers' reactions to children's negative emotions had indirect effects on social power - prosocial leadership and social dominance-through children's emotional regulation ability. Conclusion/Implications: The results of this study revealed the mediating role of children's emotional regulation ability between mothers' reactions to children's negative emotions and children's social power. Also, these findings will be helpful in order to understand children's social power and to develop parent education programs.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.55-69
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of difficult temperament and mothers' reactions to child negative emotion on child emotion regulation strategies. Mothers of 253 preschoolers(Mage=4.04yrs.) responded to questionnaires on child temperament, mothers' reactions to child negative emotion, and child emotion regulation strategy. The results of regression analysis revealed that; 1) child difficult temperament positively predicted child's aggressive or outburst/appealing strategies whereas negatively predicted avoidance/none strategy; 2) child difficult temperament was not the variable predicting positive coping strategy, but mothers' emotion-focused or problem-focused reactions predicted child positive coping strategy whereas punitive or distress reactions predicted either aggressive or avoidance/none strategy; 3) child temperament moderated the link between mothers' reactions to child's negative emotion expression and child emotion regulation strategies. In particular, children with higher difficult temperament showed higher aggressive strategy under mothers' higher distress or punitive reaction and lower emotion focused or problem focused reaction. On the other hand, children with lower difficult temperament only showed avoidance/ none strategy when mothers showed higher minimization or punitive reaction. The results of current study underscore both child temperament, mothers' reactions and their interactions in predicting child emotion regulation strategies.