어머니의 상호작용 행동이 아동의 이야기 이해력에 미치는 영향: 만 4-5세 아동의 마음이론의 매개효과

Effect of Mothers’ Interactive Behaviors on Preschoolers’ Story Comprehension: The Mediating Role of Theory-of-Mind

The purpose of this study was to investigate the interplay between mothers’ interactive behaviors, children’s theory-of-mind, and story comprehension skills. The participants consisted of 93 pairs of children aged four to five years and their mothers. Children’s story comprehension skills during a storybook reading session were measured using the “content comprehension” questions adapted from Lee (2021). Mothers’ interactive behavior was measured using the Interactive Behavior Scale for Parents (IBS-P; Kim & Lim, 2014). Children’s theory-of-mind was measured using the Children’s Social Understanding Scale (CSUS; Tahiroglu et al., 2014). The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, bivariate correlations, and the Process Macro Model 4. The results indicated a relationship between mothers’ directive interactions and lower factual comprehension in children, as well as a correlation between children’s theory-of-mind and inferential comprehension. Furthermore, it showed a mediating effect of theory-of-mind on mothers’ interactive behaviors and children’s story comprehension. It can be said on the basis of this study that mothers’ responsive, effective, and indirective interactive behaviors were related to the development of higher-level theory-of-mind in children, which in turn predicted improved inferential comprehension. This study contributes to the literature by comprehensively analyzing the effects of mothers’ daily interactive behavior as an environmental factor and children’s theory-of-mind as a personal factor on the development of specific facets of story comprehension in preschoolers.