Authentic Parental Competence, Awareness of Educational Community, and Life Satisfaction in Mothers with Young Children in Korea

Abstract

Objectives The study aimed to examine the effect of authentic parental competence and parental awareness of educational community on mothers’ life satisfaction and the magnitude of the direct and indirect effects of those variables. Given the increasing interest in parental life satisfaction, emphasis on parental involvement to educational community and its connection to the competence as a parent, there is much need to investigate the relationship among these in order to achieve a happy family via happy parents, the fundamental and ultimate goal of a society. Methods A non-clinical sample of 276 mothers of early childhood children in metropolitan areas of Korea completed Likert questionnaires. The age of participants ranged from 25 to 47 years, and the majority of participants were middle-class. Results In addition to the positive correlations among the variables, regression analyses indicated that authentic parental competence predicted maternal life satisfaction directly and indirectly via awareness of educational community. Conclusion Life satisfaction of mothers of young children is not only directly affected by authentic parental competence, but also indirectly through the extent of how they aware their children’s education institutions as educational communities. This suggests the necessity to enhance awareness of early childhood education community as well as authentic parental competence in order to improve life satisfaction of mothers. Therefore, in early childhood education institutions and local communities it is required to implement parent education programs in order to increase authentic parental competence beyond parenting capability, and to make efforts together in establishing early childhood education institutions as educational community. Keywords: authentic parental competence, awareness of educational community, life satisfaction, mothers, early childhood