The effects of mothers with toddlers and children on their play beliefs and emotional expressiveness on their attitudes towards play participation

Objectives The purposes of this study investigates the impact of background variables, play beliefs, and emotional expressiveness of mothers with children in infancy and toddler hood on the play participation attitude, and provides basic data for parent education based on factors that affect the play participation attitude of mothers who are play participants. Methods According to the purpose of the study, mothers with infants and toddlers were selected as subjects for the study. The purpose and method of the study were explained to mothers who used the programs of the childcare support centers in Seoul and Gyeonggi area, and the questionnaire data of 254 people who participated autonomously were used as research data. Research data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, t-test, F test, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis through the SPSS program 23.0. Results the mother's background variables, employment status and number of children, showed statistically significant inter-group differences and correlations for each sub-factor of play beliefs, emotional expression, and play participation attitude, and play beliefs, emotional expression, and play participation attitude also showed sub-factors. It was found that there were positive and negative correlations for each factor. In addition, the sub-factors of the mother's play beliefs, participatory play beliefs and positive emotional expressiveness among emotional expressiveness, were found to have an influence on sensitive play, responsive play and enjoyable play among play participation attitudes. In particular, the mother's positive emotional expressiveness appeared as a factor influencing the mother's attitude toward play participation, suggesting that the mother's positive emotions could be reflected in play behavior. Conclusions Since the mother's employment status and the number of children in the home are related to the mother's play beliefs and attitude toward play participation, it is necessary to provide a variety of customized education that takes into account the mother's background variables in parent education. In addition, as a home environment to support play for infants and young children, direct support measures to support mothers' positive emotional expression are required.