A Study on the Understanding and Confirmation of Parenting Strengths in Korean Infants’ Mothers

Abstract

The following study identified the special parenting characteristics of the Korean mother’s “strengths”, and restructured these characteristics to inspire confidence in parenting through the recognition and confirmation of these strengths. The study conducted to examine the standard “parenting strengths”, and then attempted to discover a representative sample of “strengths” individual mothers. The research tool were categories of “parenting strengths” derived from 58 initial categories through previous research and then condensed to 45 after testing for content validity. The subject of the study was 530 mothers in Seoul and Gyeonggi provinces, and the results of study, using a mean of 4.0, was reported with standard deviation of instilled parental strengths. The research indicated that the universal parenting strengths exhibited by Korean mothers (in order of importance) were role-modeling, learning, beliefs, responsibility, patience, fellowship, lawfulness, gratitude, and fairness. Looking over the universal strengths according to the educational level of the children, it was shown that seven categories - learning, role-modeling, responsibility, beliefs, gratitude, patience, and lawfulness - were seen in lower-grade children, while ten categories - role-modeling, learning, beliefs, responsibility, patience, fellowship, lawfulness, fairness, educational passion, and gratitude - were best seen in higher-grade children. In terms of employment, working mothers displayed twelve categories - role-modeling, learning, beliefs, responsibility, gratitude, patience, fellowship, lawfulness, fairness, vitality, curiosity, and educational passion, while stay-at-home mothers displayed nine categories - learning, role-modeling, beliefs, responsibility, patience, lawfulness, fellowship, fairness, and gratitude. Finally, we created the study to be able to confirm the individual representative strengths of the mothers based on universal parenting strengths.