The Influence of Early Childhood Teachers' Play Support Competence and Emotional Expressiveness on the Quality of Teacher-Child Interaction

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the influence of early childhood teachers' play support competence and emotional expressiveness on the quality of teacher-child interaction and to provide empirical data for supporting high-quality teacher-child interaction. The participants were 271 early childhood teachers working at childcare centers located in D City, South Korea. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 through descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and stepwise multiple regression analysis. The major findings were as follows. First, the mean levels of early childhood teachers' play support competence (M = 4.10) and teacher-child interaction quality (M = 4.20) were above average. Regarding emotional expressiveness, positive emotional expressiveness was relatively high (M = 4.12), whereas negative emotional expressiveness was relatively low (M = 1.59). Among the subdimensions of play support competence, affective competence showed the highest mean score (M = 4.12), while sensitivity showed the highest mean score (M = 4.32) among the subdimensions of teacher-child interaction quality. Second, play support competence and positive emotional expressiveness were significantly and positively correlated with teacher-child interaction quality, whereas negative emotional expressiveness was negatively correlated with teacher-child interaction quality. Third, the subdimensions of play support competence and emotional expressiveness significantly explained teacher-child interaction quality. Specifically, the subdimensions of play support competence explained 72% of the variance in teacher-child interaction quality, while the subdimensions of emotional expressiveness explained 63% of the variance. These findings suggest that early childhood teachers' play support competence and emotional expressiveness are each significantly associated with the quality of teacher-child interaction. The findings further indicate the need for teacher education and support that considers both play support competence and emotional expressiveness in promoting high-quality teacher-child interaction.