• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.357-377
• /
• 2013

This study aims to look for care quality factors reduce the daily stress of young children placed in care centers for long hours. Therefore, the research questions look into how the hours and care quality factors in child care centers affect young children's daily stress, and whether the care quality factor moderates the impact of the hours children spent in centers. The subjects in this study were 380 children from 3 to 5 years old from 10 child care centers. The Korean Preschool Daily Stress Scale(KPDSS) for children's daily stress and Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale-Revised(ECERS-R) for quality of each classroom of centers were implemented. The main findings were summarized as following: (1) The more hours he/she spent in the center, the more stress he/she had. Children who spent 9 hours or more had more stress than children with 7 hours or less. (2) Among the 7 quality factors including space and furnishings, personal care routines, language reasoning, activities, interaction, program structure, parents staff, the interaction level between a teacher and a child and the level of parents and staff had the most impact on children's daily stress. (3) The qualitative factors of child care, language reasoning level, interaction level, parental support, and level of teachers reduced children's daily stress which was affected by the hours they spent in centers. Thus in order to reduce the daily stress of children who attend more than 9 hours a day, it is crucial to promote language reasoning activities and interaction between teachers and children and to improve parental support and teachers' professionalism.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
• /
• v.49 no.9
• /
• pp.121-130
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study was to explore potential correlation between the amount of time children spent in child care centers and their daily stress levels. The subjects of this study were 165 children (aged 2~5) who attended a child care center in Seoul. Children were interviewed individually, and tested using 23 picture cards which describe a range of stressful situations. The results of this study were as follows: the children's age led to significant differences in their stress level. The age at which the children first entered the child care center had no significant impact on their stress level. However, the times spent in child care centers showed a significant correlation with stress. The longer time the child spent in the center, the higher the degree of stress they encountered.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
• /
• v.36 no.1
• /
• pp.85-98
• /
• 2015

This study aimed to investigate measures which could reduce the daily stress of 3-5-years-olds who are attending daycare centers, by examining the effects of 3-5-years-olds' time spent in daycare centers and peer competence on daily stress. To this end, two hundred and fifty 3-5-years-olds attending the same daycare for more than 6 months were selected from 5 daycare centers in Daejeon Metropolitan City and tested for their daily stress levels. In addition their teachers completed peer competence tests and a short questionnaire regarding the 3-5-years-olds. In terms of the results, those 3-5-years-olds who spent more than 7 hours or longer in daycare centers were found to have a higher level of daily stress than the 3-5-years-olds who spent less than 7 hours. Additionally, those 3-5-years-olds who returned home after 6 p.m were found to have a higher level of daily stress than the 3-5-years-olds who returned home before 6 p.m. Moreover, it was found that the more time 3-5-years-olds spent in daycare centers and the lower their peer competences were, the more daily stress they seemed to experience.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.25-49
• /
• 2013

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of home and classroom literacy environments on the reading interests of 104 young children aged 4-5 years old. Their 104 mothers and 52 preschool teachers also participated in this study. The instruments modified and used in this study were the questionnaire which was developed by Fitzgerald(1991), Dickinson, Temple, Hirschler & Smith(1992), and the Primary Pupil Reading Attitude Inventory by Askov & Fischbach(1973). The results of this study were as follows. First, there were significant relationships between children's physical and psychological home literacy environments and reading interests. Second, there were also significant relationships between children's physical and psychological classroom literacy environments and reading interests. Third, home and classroom literacy environments, especially physical environments of home and psychological environments of classrooms, had an influence on children's reading interests. On the basis of this study, enough provision of literacy environments may help to improve children's reading interests, leading to better reading and writing ability.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.5-29
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this study was to find out various problem behaviors of children who were not diagnosed with any disability, but instead, engaged in problem behaviors. This study also intended to review the difficulties of children with problem behaviors, their teachers' difficulties and needs, to suggest support for child care and education teachers. This study conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with eight child care and education teachers. The interviews were transcribed into text and analyzed by contents. The results of this study are as follows. Problem behaviors of children described by teachers were classified into external and internal types. In addition, children with problem behaviors had experienced difficulties in maintaining relationships with their teachers, peers and parents. Many teachers were not successful to provide appropriate support for preschoolers who demonstrated problem behaviors in classrooms or some teachers provided individualized support. Teachers adapted the behavioral and the psychological approaches to problem behaviors of preschoolers. However, teachers reported difficulties with children with problem behavior and brought up the following issues on teaching children with problem behaviors; managing troubled matters happening in the class, difficulty in controlling teacher's emotions on problem behaviors, the lack of time, the integrated child care time without teacher in charge of child, the interruption in activity progress, the lack of a special way to deal with problem behaviors, and difficulty in cooperation with families through parents-teacher counseling sessions. Teachers counseled with parents who had a child with problem behaviors and revealed that parents reacted to problem behaviors in various ways such as embarrassment, acceptance, ignorance, or avoidance. Most teachers received assistance and support for teaching children with problem behaviors, from families, local communities and in-service training. Lastly, teachers with preschoolers with problem behaviors needed the support of experts on managing behavior problems, assistant teaching personnel, education for parents and teachers, respects for teachers, psychological counseling or play therapy from professional service agencies, diagnosis service at child care and education centers which children attended, and support networking with agencies. Teachers also required the family support of medical diagnosis and psychological counseling and financial support from the government.