The Effects of Household Chaos on the Self-Determination of Young Children: The Mediating Effects of Children’s Attention

The purpose of this study is to verify direct and indirect effects of household chaos on the self-determination of young children by focusing on the mediating effects of children’s attention. The subjects of the study were 267 5-year-old children, their mothers, and 21 homeroom teachers. To analyze the mediating effect of children's attention in the relationship between household chaos and children's self-determination, Model 4 of SPSS PROCESS macro proposed by Hayes (2018) was applied. The findings of this study indicate that household chaos has a significant effect on children's self-determination in educational settings by influencing their attention span subsequently. This suggests that maintaining a certain level of stimulation in the home is important for the development of children, as excessive levels of unpredictable stimuli hinder children's attention and negatively affect their self-determination. The study is meaningful in that it provides basic data for promoting self-determination in the field of early childhood education by analyzing factors that affect children's self-determination. Furthermore, the study implications suggest that the study can be used as theoretical data for teacher and parent education to promote the development of self-determination of young children.