모자 간 눈 맞춤(eye-contact)이 어머니의 통제 행동과 유아의 정서와의 관계에 미치는 영향

This study examined the influences of eye-contact upon the relationship between mothers` control behaviors and emotions of preschool children. The participants of this study were 66 children aged 6, and their mothers. The children and mothers were observed taking part in a writing task for 15 minutes, and two coders analyzed the amount of eye-contact between children and mothers, mothers` verbal and nonverbal support and coercive control, and children`s emotions in the task setting. The results showed that mothers` coercive control and nonverbal support significantly accounted for children`s negative and positive emotions, respectively. In addition, the interaction between eye-contact and mothers` verbal support was significant. In particular, mothers` behaviors significantly affected children`s emotions only when eye-contact occurred. Mothers` behaviors in the absence of eye-contact did not affect children`s emotions. The discussion section included an analysis of the social function of eye-contact on the verbal and nonverbal communication between mothers and children, and suggestions for future study were also presented.