Improving parental roles and education for early childhood development

"Spurred by the recent series of child abuse cases that have been brought to light, the Korean government released a parental education package to promote the participation in and effectiveness of parental education programs. Early childhood linguistic and socio-emotional development are related to parental role indicators such as maternal depression, parental stress and style and the home environment. As such, to improve parental roles, it is important to enhance the use and effectiveness of parental education materials by integrating resources such as booklets and videos at different ministries and provide parents with the necessary skills that are in line with the child's age and situation. Furthermore, it is necessary to expand parental education programs with expert counselling and guidance to help parents cope with their respective child care needs and improve their parenting skills. - In response to the series of child abuse cases that have been brought to light, the government released measures to promote parental education. - To promote participation and interest in parental education, it is important to clarify the relevance of the parental role in child development. - The parental role can be measured via maternal depression, parenting stress and styles, paternal involvement in child care and home environmental stimuli test results. - Early childhood linguistic ability is related to fathers' parenting stress, parental style and interaction capability and their education level. - However, no relevance has been observed between early childhood linguistic ability and household income. - Early childhood socioemotional ability is related to maternal depression, parenting stress and style and their interaction capability. - However, no relevance was observed between early childhood socioemotional ability and parents' education level and household income. - Frequency of paternal involvement in child care is irrelevant to early childhood linguistic and socioemotional development. - Improving parental roles can reduce the gap between children's linguistic abilities that have been affected by the parent's education levels. - Parental education should be designed to enhance the quality of paternal parenting, instead of increasing the quantity. - It is most beneficial to the linguistic and socioemotional development of children when parents maintain responsiveness and are less demanding as their children grow older. - It is necessary to increase the use and effectiveness of parental education materials by integrating resources such as booklets and videos at different ministries and providing the necessary knowledge and skills that suit the children's age and respective situations. - More parental education programs are needed that provide expert counselling and guidance to help parents cope with their respective child care needs and improve their parenting skills."