Mother's Play Belief and Young Children’s Peer Competence: The Mediating Effects of Young Children’s Playfulness

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating effects of young children's playfulness between the children's peer competence and their mothers' play beliefs. For this study, 160 mothers and 160 children aged 4-5 years who were in kindergarten and daycare centers in Area J were selected. The collected data were analyzed based on correlation and mediation using SPSS Statistics. The research results are as follows. First, as a result of analyzing the relationship between the young children's peer competence and playfulness and their mothers' play beliefs, there was a statistically significant positive correlation between a mother's play-support beliefs and their children's peer competence and playfulness. On the other hand, the relationship between a mother's learning-support beliefs and her child's peer competence and playfulness was not significant. There was a significant positive correlation between playfulness and peer competence in the young children. Second, as a result of verifying the mediating effect of the children's playfulness in the relationship between their mothers' play-support belief and the children's peer competence, we found that playfulness has a partial mediating role.