The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze the relationships among early childhood teachers’ child-rearing beliefs, emotion regulation ability, and strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors, as well as to analyze the effec...
The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze the relationships among early childhood teachers’ child-rearing beliefs, emotion regulation ability, and strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors, as well as to analyze the effects of early childhood teachers’ child-rearing beliefs and emotion regulation ability on strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors. To this end, the levels of early childhood teachers’ child-rearing beliefs, emotion regulation ability, and strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors were examined. After analyzing the correlations among these variables, the effects of early childhood teachers’ child-rearing beliefs and emotion regulation ability on strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors were analyzed.
For this research purpose, the research questions set in this study are as follows.
Research Question 1. What are the levels of early childhood teachers’ child-rearing beliefs, emotion regulation ability, and strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors?
Research Question 2. What are the correlations among early childhood teachers’ child-rearing beliefs, emotion regulation ability, and strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors?
Research Question 3. What is the effect of early childhood teachers’ child-rearing
beliefs and emotion regulation ability on strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors?
To this end, a questionnaire survey was conducted with 350 early childhood teachers working at childcare centers located in M City and M County, Jeollanam-do, from May 19 to June 9, 2025. Among the collected questionnaires, four were excluded due to non-response or insincere responses during the review process, and a total of 346 questionnaires were used as final analysis data.
To achieve the purpose of this study, the collected data were coded and statistically analyzed using the SPSS 27.0 program. Frequencies and percentages were calculated to examine the general characteristics of the participants, and means and standard deviations were calculated to examine the levels of early childhood teachers’ child-rearing beliefs, emotion regulation ability, and strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors. Pearson’s correlation analysis was conducted to examine the correlations among early childhood teachers’ child-rearing beliefs, emotion regulation ability, and strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors. In addition, multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the effects of early childhood teachers’ child-rearing beliefs and emotion regulation ability on strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors.
The results of this study are summarized as follows.First, when examining the levels of early childhood teachers’ child-rearing beliefs, emotion regulation ability, and strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors based on mean scores, the level of child-rearing beliefs was lower than the average score of 3, whereas emotion regulation ability and strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors were higher than the average score of 3.
Second, as a result of examining the relationships among early childhood teachers’ child-rearing beliefs, emotion regulation ability, and strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors, modern child-rearing beliefs showed a positive correlation with emotion regulation ability. Among the sub-factors of strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors, modern child-rearing beliefs showed positive correlations with Positive Preventive Strategy I, Positive Preventive Strategy II, and Positive Response Strategy. Traditional child-rearing beliefs showed a positive correlation with the Negative Response Strategy. When examining the relationship between emotion regulation ability and strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors, early childhood teachers’ emotion regulation ability showed positive correlations with Positive Preventive Strategy I, Positive Preventive Strategy II, and Positive Response Strategy. In examining the relationships among the strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors, Positive Preventive Strategy I showed positive correlations with Positive Preventive Strategy II and Positive Response Strategy, and Positive Preventive Strategy II also showed a significant positive correlation with Positive Response Strategy. However, the Negative Response Strategy showed generally low or no correlations and showed a positive correlation only with traditional child-rearing beliefs.
Third, multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the effects of early childhood teachers’ child-rearing beliefs and emotion regulation ability on strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors. The results showed that both early childhood teachers’ child-rearing beliefs and emotion regulation ability had significant effects on strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors. However, among child-rearing beliefs, traditional child-rearing beliefs showed a significant effect only on the Negative Response Strategy among the sub-factors of strategies for guiding young children’s problem behaviors.