The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of mother's emotional regulation style and expressivity on young children's emotional intelligence. Therefore, this study was to clarify important factors to affect young children's emotional in...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of mother's emotional regulation style and expressivity on young children's emotional intelligence. Therefore, this study was to clarify important factors to affect young children's emotional intelligence which could be based on education and counseling of parents.
The research questions of this study were as follows:
First, are there any differences in mother's emotional regulation style, expressivity and young children's emotional intelligence according to socio-demographic backgrounds?
Second, how mother's emotional regulation style and expressivity affect the children's emotional intelligence such as self-recognition ability, self-regulation ability, recognition ability of others, and regulation ability of others.
The subjects of this study consisted of 302 mothers having children aged 5 drawn from 2 kindergartens in Cheonguju city and Cheongwon country. Data were analyzed with frequencies, percentage, mean, Cronbach α coefficient, t-test, one-way ANOVA with LSD post hoc-test, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression analysis using SPSS 12.0 program.
The results of this study were as follows:
First, there were statistically significant differences in mother's emotional regulation style and emotional expressivity according to socio-demographic variables such as working mother or house wife, mother's religion, and monthly family income. Children's gender, mother's religion, and monthly family income brought differences in children's emotional intelligence.
Second, there were significantly differences in the effects of mother's emotional regulation style and expressivity on children's emotional intelligence according to children's gender. Mother's positive emotional expressivity and active problem-solving influenced on boy's emotional intelligence. That is, boys whose mothers had more positive emotional expressivity, whose mothers had more active problem-solving style were higher their emotional intelligence. For girls, mother's positive emotional expressivity and avoidance-distraction style influenced on their emotional intelligence. That is, girls whose mothers had more positive emotional expressivity were higher their emotional intelligence, but girls whose mothers had more avoidance -distraction style were lower their emotional intelligence.
Third, boy's self-regulation ability was related to mother's active problem-solving style while girl's self-regulation ability associated withy mother's positive emotional expressivity. That is, boys whose mothers had more active problem-solving style were higher their self-regulation ability while girls whose mothers had more positive emotional expressivity were higher their self-regulation ability of emotion.
Fourth, boy's self-recognition ability was related to mother's positive and negative emotional expressibity while girl's self-recognition was predicted by positive emotional expressivity. That is, boys whose mothers had more positive emotional expressivity and less negative emotional expressivity were higher their self-recognition ability while girls whose mothers had more positive emotional expressivity were higher their self-recognition of emotion.
Fifth, boy's others-regulation ability was related to mother's positive emotional expressivity while girl' others-regulation ability associated with mother's positive emotional expressivity and avoidance-distraction style. That is, boys whose mothers had more positive emotional expressivity were higher their others-regulation ability while girls whose mothers had more positive emotional expressivity and less avoidance-distraction style were higher their others-regulation ability of emotion.
Sixth, children's others-recognition was predicted by mother's positive emotional expressivity regardless of children's gender. That is, children whose mothers had more positive emotional expressivity were higher their others-recognition of emotion.