A Keyword Network Analysis of Research Trends in Chinese Picture Books for Young Children: Focusing on Chinese Academic Journals

The purpose of this study is to examine the current status of previous research on Chinese picture books for young children through keyword network analysis and to analyze the relational structure and substructures among research topics. For this purpose, 185 academic journal articles related to children’s picture books published between 2021 and 2025 and indexed in CNKI, a Chinese academic information platform, were selected for analysis. A total of 416 keywords were extracted from the collected articles, and after a refinement process, 244 keywords were selected. A frequency analysis of the refined keywords was conducted using SPSS 26.0, while centrality analysis was performed with UCINET 6. Additionally, overall network visualization and community analysis of the top 112 keywords (those co-occurring at least twice) were carried out using Gephi 0.10.1. The results of this study are as follows: First, the most frequently appearing core keywords in research on Chinese children’s picture books were ‘picture book’, ‘young children’, ‘picture book reading’, ‘early childhood education’, ‘picture book class’, ‘teaching strategies’, and ‘emotion’. Second, in the centrality analysis, ‘picture book’ had the highest values in degree centrality, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality. In addition, ‘young children’, ‘picture book reading’, and ‘early childhood education’ also played central roles. Third, the community analysis revealed a total of five substructures within the research on Chinese children’s picture books. This study provides foundational data for comparative research between South Korea and China in the field of children’s literature by systematically analyzing the structural characteristics and core themes of research on Chinese picture books for young children.