The Effect of Mothers' Anxiety, Psychological Control, and Attention to Academic Achievement on Korean Early Childhood Children's Helplessness

Abstract

Psychological control refers to intrusive parental behaviors that affect child development. This study examines two subfactors of psychological-control parenting: autonomy-control and affection-control. While autonomy-control involves parental behaviors that ignore the thoughts and opinions of children, affection-control defines behaviors that show conditional affection by withdrawing affection or causing children to experience a sense of guilt. Direct and indirect effects of mothers' anxiety, psychological control, and attention to academic achievement on children's helplessness with the mediating effects of academic self-efficacy were examined. Participants included 201 children who completed a puzzle task and a puppet interview to measure responses for helplessness and academic self-efficacy, respectively. Affection-control of mothers had positive associations with children's helplessness. While autonomy-control parenting reduced children's academic self-efficacy scores, mothers' attention to achievement increased academic self-efficacy. Results suggest that parents may be able to lower children's helplessness by improving children's academic self-efficacy through autonomy-supportive parenting. The most important developmental tasks in early childhood are to teach children to act out of their own will, to believe in themselves, and to forge meaningful relationships with others rather than focusing on academic achievement.