The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of young children's temperament and mothers' parental behavior on peer play behavior and study moderating effects of mothers' parental behavior in the effect of young children's temperament on peer play behavior.
The research subjects are a total of 1,694 mothers and their young children (male: 863, female: 831) who participated in the 4th year of investigation of the Panel Study on Korean Children of Korea Institute of Child Care & Education (KICCE). The scale of Buss and Plomin (1984, Emotionality, Activity and Sociability-Temperament Survey for Children-Parental Ratings: EAS) was used to measure young children's temperament, a research variable. And the scale of Bornstein, Tamis-LeMonda, Pascual, Haynes, Painter, Galperin와 Pecheux (1996, Parental Style Questionnaire) and the scale developed by Cho, Lee, Lee, and Kwon (1999) and corrected and complemented by researchers of the Panel Study on Korean Children was used together to measure the parental behavior of mothers. To measure the peer play behavior of young children, the scale developed by Fantuzzo, Coolahan, Mendez McDermott, and Sutton-Smith (1998), modified for domestic environments by Choi and Shin (2008), and corrected and complemented by researchers of the Panel Study on Korean Children was used.
Correlation, t-test, and hierarchical regression analysis were performed on the collected data using SPSS 26.0 program. The score of mothers' parental behavior (control variable) was grouped into 2 levels and the effect of young children's temperament on peer play behavior was examined for each level.
The main results of the research are as follows;
First, it was observed that young children's sex, activity, and social temperament, and mothers' warm and controlling parental behavior have significant effects on young children's interaction. Also, it was found that there is a moderating effect of mothers' parental behavior on the effect of young children's activity temperament on peer interaction. In other words, the higher the mother's warm parental behavior, the higher the positive effect of young children's activity temperament on interaction.
Second, it was found that young children's sex, emotionality, and mothers' warm parental behavior have significant effects on the disruption of young children. Also, there were moderating effects of mothers' warm parental behavior on the effect of young children's emotional temperament on disruption. In other words, the higher the mothers' warm parental behavior, the stronger the positive effect of young children's emotional temperament on disruption.
Third, it was found that young children's sex, emotionality, activity, social, and mothers' warm parental behavior have significant effects on the disconnection of young children. On the other hand, the moderating effect of mothers' parental behavior on the effect of young children's temperament on peer disconnection was not found.
Lastly, based on the results of this study, we suggest that it is necessary to consider the parental behavior of both parents together and examine the comprehensive effects on young children's temperament and peer play behavior. Also, it is necessary to examine the effect of teachers' play instruction and interaction and parents' parental behavior and temperament on peer play behavior. We also suggest that it is necessary to clarify the causal effect between variables by studying the effect of young children's temperament and mothers' parental behavior on the following peer play behavior using longitudinal research design, and, to improve the reliability of the research by collecting data on young children's temperament and peer play behavior from teachers and researchers.