• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.75-98
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• 2020

Objective: This study aimed to examine the influences of household chaos on self-control of young children and to investigate whether teachers' limit-setting styles had moderating effects. Methods: The participants were 184 children (83 boys and 101 girls), at age 3 -5, their mothers and teachers working at daycare centers located in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation, and hierarchical regression. Moderating effects were examined using the Mplus8.0 program. Results: The results indicated that household chaos as well as teacher's permissive and logical limit-setting styles had significant effects on self-control of preschoolers. The lower the level of household chaos was, the higher the level of self-control of preschoolers was. The level of self-control was more likely to be high when teachers used logical limit-setting with detailed explanation to children whereas it was lower when they used more permissive limit-setting. In addition, teachers' logical limit-setting moderated the relation between household chaos and self-control of preschoolers. That is, the effects of household chaos on preschoolers' self-control were mitigated when the level of logical limit-setting was high compared to when it was low. Conclusion/Implications: The results suggested that both household chaos and teachers' limit-setting styles play important roles in increasing self-control of preschoolers.