The Effects of Early Childhood Teachers’ Professional Support Environment on Practice of Respecting Young Children’s Rights: Mediated by Curriculum Implementation Autonomy

Objectives The purpose of this study is to reveal the mediating effect of curriculum implementation autonomy on the effect of early childhood teachers' professional support environment on the practice of respecting young childen’s rights. Methods The subjects of this study were 266 early childhood teachers working at early childhood education programs located in G city. For this study, early childhood teachers' professional support environment, curriculum implementation autonomy, and practice of respecting young children’s rights scales were used. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS WIN 25.0 and PROCESS macro 4.0 programs. The Pearson's correlation analysis and regression analysis according to Baron and Kenny's three-step procedures were administered. To verify the significance of the mediating effect, bootstrapping resampling was performed 10,000 times. Results First, there were significant positive correlations between early childhood teachers' professional support environment and curriculum implementation autonomy and practice of respecting children’s rights. Second, curriculum implementation autonomy showed a partial mediating effect between early childhood teachers' professional support environment and the practice of respecting young children’s rights. Conclusions Early childhood teachers' curriculum implementation autonomy was identified as a major variable mediating the effect of professional support environment on the practice of respecting young children’s rights. This suggests that professional support environment and teachers' curriculum implementation autonomy should be ensured to promote the practice of respect for children's rights for early childhood teachers.