A study on the relationship between Early Childhood Teachers' Empathy Ability, Teacher-Child Interaction and Play support competency: Focusing on the mediation effect of Play support competency

Objectives The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between early childhood teachers' empathy ability and teacher-child interaction and play support competency and to examine the mediating effect of play support competency Methods The subjects of this study were 220 teachers who work in the 3 to 5 years old classes of the kindergartens and daycare centers located in J province and G city, the data were analyzed using the SPSS 26.0 program. First, the correlation and effections between early childhood teachers' empathy ability and teacher-child interaction and play support competency was examined. Next, the mediating effect of play support competency in the relationship between early childhood teachers' empathy ability and teacher-child interaction was analyzed. Results First, as a result of examining the correlation between early childhood teachers' empathy ability and teacher-child interaction and play support competency, it was found that there was a significant correlation between variables. In other words, there was a correlation between early childhood teachers' empathy ability and teacher-child interaction, early childhood teachers' empathy ability and play support competency, and there was a correlation between teacher-child interaction and play support competency. Second, this study can be explained that early childhood teachers' empathy ability had to a positive effects on promoting play support competency and teacher-child interaction. Third, as a result of examining the mediating effect of play support competency in the relationship between early childhood teachers' empathy ability and teacher-child interaction, it was found that play support competency partially mediates the relationship between early childhood teachers' empathy ability and teacher-child interaction. This can be explained by the fact that early childhood teachers' empathy ability not only directly affects the process of influencing teacher-child interaction, but also indirectly influences it through the medium of play support competency. Conclusions It suggests that more practical studies on effective early childhood teachers' empathy ability are needed to enhance teacher-child interaction and play support competency.