The Role of Maternal Involvement in the Development of Children’s Regulation Skills : Findings from Korea

• In Event: Poster Session 05
  In Poster Session: PS 05 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Children’s regulation skills in early school years have significant implications for a host of outcomes across development. Although positive parenting behaviors are well documented to promote children’s regulatory skills, three questions remain unexplored. First, most studies failed to distinguish cognitive regulation from emotional regulation in children. Albeit limited, evidence suggests that school-aged children show different developmental patterns of cognitive versus emotional regulation skills and that relevant factors may also differ. Second, few studies focused on aspects of parenting behavior that might reflect cultural specificity. Effects of parental involvement on children’s regulatory capacities remain inconsistent, in part due to different cultural values unique to different ethnic groups. For instance, Korean mothers tend to have very high expectations for their children’s academic achievement and are heavily involved in children’s academic activities and peer relationships. Third, few studies examined gendered pathways in the link between parenting and children’s regulatory skill development. By leveraging extensive data on maternal involvement in children’s academic lives and social relationships from Korea, the present study sought to increase specificity in 1) characterizing different patterns of maternal involvement; 2) delineating longitudinal associations between different patterns of maternal involvement and children’s cognitive vs. emotional regulatory skills in school-aged children; and 3) identifying gendered pathways in such associations.

We used the Panel Study on Korean Children, a national longitudinal survey conducted between 2008 and 2017 in Korea (N= 2,150; girls n = 1059; ages 0 – 9 years). Using Mplus, we conducted latent profile analysis to identify distinctive patterns of mothers’ involvement at age 8 for each gender with 5 indicators (Figure 1). We then examined whether profiles of maternal involvement would be differentially associated with children’s cognitive and emotional regulatory skills at ages 8 and 9 for boys and girls separately.

Analysis indicated 4 distinctive patterns of maternal involvement with no significant gender difference (“Low control in academics and social relationship”, “moderate control in academics and low control in social relationship”, “Highly academic and social relationship oriented”, “highly academic-oriented with low control in social relationship”, Figures 1 and 2). However, different patterns of maternal involvement show different longitudinal associations with children’s cognitive and emotional regulatory skills, as well as specific gendered association patterns. For both boys and girls, children of mothers with high academic and social relationship-oriented showed higher levels of cognitive regulation. Boys of mothers with higher involvement in the child’s schoolwork than social relationships showed lower levels of emotional regulation, but the path was not significant with girls.

Although findings from Western cultures suggest that parents’ educational expectation is closely associated with positive parenting behaviors (e.g., engagement and support) and children’s positive outcomes, our finding shows that Korean mothers’ high educational involvement could exert a negative influence on children’s regulatory skills when children’s social relationships are ignored. Additionally, boys appeared to be more vulnerable to mothers’ over-involvement in their academic activities. This result indicates that gender-specific and culture-specific approaches are in need in order to promote children’s regulatory skills.

Authors

• Jiwon Lee, Yonsei University
  Presenting Author

• Jaehee Kim
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hyoun K. Kim, Yonsei University
  Non-Presenting Author