The purpose of the study is to examine the clothing life of children aged 2~5 years at home and the differences according to a variable of age, investigating parents' guidance and perception on children's clothing. In this study, we targeted 339 paren...
The purpose of the study is to examine the clothing life of children aged 2~5 years at home and the differences according to a variable of age, investigating parents' guidance and perception on children's clothing. In this study, we targeted 339 parents who have children aged 2~5 years enrolled in early childhood educational institution and used a questionnaire for parents made by researchers based on related literature to investigate the clothing life, parent’s guidance and awareness. To understand the actual clothing life of children, it consists of 4 parts; wearing and taking off, organizing and managing, selecting and purchasing, and responding to the lead degree of children and overall purchase condition in various types of clothes and situation. The guidance status of the clothing life and awareness by parents consist of two parts; status of guidance and awareness, and parents were asked to respond the status of guidance, educational experience, importance and difficulty of guidance and necessity of education, etc. We calculated the frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation to analyze data and conducted Mann-Whitney U for Kruskal-Wallis and post-hoc tests and chi-square test.
The following is the results of research problem. First, children aged 2~5 years tended to wear and take off their clothes together with parents, and a degree to which children took the initiative varied as kinds and situations of clothing. The older the children, the greater the initiative, showing a significant difference according to age. Parents tended to organize and manage their children's clothes, and a degree to which children took the initiative varied as the method of organizing and a situation. As the children got older, the degree of the initiative tended to increase and there was a significant difference according to age. The children's choice of clothing was between being likely to be made by parents and being together by parents and children, and the lead degree of children differed depending on the clothing type and situation, and the lead degree tended to increase in the order of aged 2 years, 4 years, 3 years, and 5 years. Significant differences between groups showed a little different pattern but in general it revealed children aged 3 years and 5 years chose their clothes themselves than children aged 2 years. The purchase of children's clothing were mainly affected by parents opinions, and a significant difference was showed in that the 5 years old group reflected their own opinions more often rather than the 2 years old group, and the 2 years old group did than 3 years old group. In addition, when purchasing children's clothes, parents considered design as important, and mainly everyday dress was purchased online and clothes for a special day at a department store. The need mainly led to purchase and most of the parents spent between 50,000 won and 200,000 won per month.
Second, parents who have children aged 2 years to 5 years have guided not so much in their daily life, and have a low tendency to their awareness of importance and difficulties. As for clothing life guidance areas, most of the parents considered wearing and taking off, organizing and managing clothes as important. Also the more than half of them recognized organizing and managing as difficult. The reason for the difficulty was showed similarly that; children take much time to do, do not try on their own, and do not well. In addition, 57.8% of parents have guided clothing life and most of them consider the personality and situation of their children, and 42.2% have not because they believe that their children would know it as growing up and children are still young. In general, parents have asked guidance method from the Internet and from their family members and acquaintances. 91.4% of parents had no experience in participating in parent education for clothing life guidance, and the necessity of it was observed as moderate and necessary.
Based on the above results, this study suggests that the need for both parents and experts to continually pay attention to children's clothing life and guidance in order for them to develop self-help skills through their own clothing life adequate for their developmental level. In addition, parents play an important role in children's clothing and guidance so it is needed to raise their understanding, awareness and skills for children's clothing guidance. The study has a suggestion that it is required to identify parents' specific needs and difficulties and make efforts to support their clothing guidance effectively and efficiently.