The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of early childhood teachers' parenting attitude and parental attachment on child abuse behavior. The purpose of this study was to provide basic data to prevent child abuse in early childhood education institutions.
Through this study, the researcher tried to find ways to prevent child abuse in early childhood education institutions and to provide basic data. The research questions set in this study to achieve these research objectives are as follows.
The research questions of this as were follow: First, are there any differences in child abuse behavior according to the early childhood teachers' general background (age, experience, educational background, type of institution, age in charge)? Second, what is the effect of early childhood teachers' parenting attitude and parental attachment on child abuse behavior?
This study was conducted with 334 early childhood teachers working at a daycare center located in metropolitan city B. The research tools for data collection are the Parenting Attitude Scale, the Parent Attachment Scale, and the Child Abuse Scale. For the data collected in this study, SPSS 26.0 statistical program was used according to the research question. First, to examine the differences in child abuse behavior according to the general background of early childhood teachers, a one-way ANOVA was conducted, followed by the Scheffé test. Second, descriptive statistical analysis was conducted to examine the general trends of early childhood teachers' parenting attitude, parental attachment, and child abuse behavior, and correlation analysis was performed to examine the relationship between research variables. In addition, multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the effects of early childhood teachers' parenting attitude and parental attachment on child abuse behavior.
The results of this research were as following: First, as a result of examining the difference in the level of child abuse behavior according to the general background of early childhood teachers, there was a statistically significant difference according to the teacher's age and educational experience. On the other hand, there was no statistically significant difference according to educational background, institution type, class in charge, and age. In particular, it was confirmed that the younger the teacher's age and the lower the education career, the higher the child abuse behavior of early childhood teachers.
Second, in the effect of parenting attitudes and attachments of early childhood teachers' parents on child abuse of early childhood teachers, the effects of father care and mother attachment on child abuse were found to be significant. However, the effects on father overprotection, mother care, mother overprotection, and father attachment were not significant. Through this, it can be seen that the higher the mother's attachment and the higher the father's care, the lower the child abuse.
The conclusion of this study is as follows:
First, the lower the age and educational experience of early childhood teachers, the higher the child abuse behavior level of early childhood teachers. Therefore, it is considered that it is necessary to further strengthen child abuse prevention education for first-time teachers.
Second, the child abuse behavior of early childhood teachers was found to have a positive correlation with parental overprotection, while it was found to have a negative correlation with parental care and attachment. In addition, the higher the level of parental care and attachment, the lower the child abuse behavior of early childhood teachers. Therefore, it is thought to be meaningful to identify parenting behaviors during interviews and appointments to secure preliminary early childhood teachers resources.
Based on the conclusion, suggestions for future research are as follows:
First, the lower the teacher's age and educational experience, the higher the level of child abuse behavior of early childhood teachers. Therefore, it is necessary to further strengthen child abuse prevention education for first-time teachers. Second, the higher the level of parental care and attachment, the lower the child abuse behavior of early childhood teachers. Therefore, it would be meaningful to identify parent-rearing behaviors during interviews and appointments to secure resources for pre-primary early childhood teachers.