Analysis of Research Trends of Parenting Attitude of Parents with Young Children by Using Keyword Network Analysis

This study aimed to examine the current status of previous studies on parenting attitudes in early childhood(EC) using keyword network analysis and to analyze research trends by identifying the substructure of research topics covered in these previous studies. Keywords for data analysis were selected from a total of 365 studies including 60 academic papers and 305 theses related to parenting attitudes in EC published in South Korea from 1983 to 2023. Word refinement was performed on the collected data, and 93 refined keywords were subjected to frequency analysis using SPSS 29.0, centrality analysis using UCINET 6, and overall network visualization and community analysis using Gephi 0.10.1, respectively. As a result of the study, the frequency of keywords in studies related to parenting attitudes in EC was highest in the order of mother-rearing attitude, parent-rearing attitude, parent education, and externalized problem behavior. In the centrality analysis, the keywords for mother-rearing attitude and parent-rearing attitude showed high values in common, while in the degree centrality analysis, internalized problem behavior, in the closeness centrality analysis, and self-regulation in the betweenness centrality analysis were relatively high. In the community analysis,six substructures were found(Community 1: Parental Education, Community 2: Problem Behaviors, Community 3: Father-raising Attitude, Community 4: Ecological Environment, Community 5: Social Emotional Ability, Community 6: Parenting Belief). This study is expected to provide fundamental information necessary for further research to develop an integrated and more systematic educational plan to support parenting attitudes in EC.