KJCKorea
Journal Central

Exposure to conversational turn-taking is a key predictor of individual differences in language development. However, studies examining its role in Korean-learning infants remain limited, with previous research relying mostly on short-term designs and automatized measurements. This study manually measured the frequency of turn-taking in interactions between 14- to 20-month-old Korean infants and their mothers. It also categorized whether the turn-taking was mother- or infant-initiated to systematically re-examine its short- and long-term effects of turn-taking on expressive vocabulary acquisition. Results show that the turn-taking frequency significantly predicted vocabulary acquisition at the time of participation and at 54 months. Additionally, turn-taking fully mediated the relationship between socioeconomic status and vocabulary development. Mother-initiated turn-taking had a significant long-term impact, underscoring the importance of caregiver-led conversations in early language acquisition.

This study aimed to translate and validate the Attitudes toward Fertility and Childbearing Scale (AFCS) for unmarried women in South Korea. Data were collected from 500 unmarried women recruited online through a research panel. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a three-factor structure of the Korean version of the scale (K-AFCS), comprising 21 items across the dimensions of “Importance for the Future,” “Hindrance at Present,” and “Female Identity.” Furthermore, the scale demonstrated satisfactory validity across multiple domains, including criterion-related validity, incremental validity via hierarchical regression analysis, and construct validity through nomological network analysis. This study is significant in that it provides a reliable and valid instrument for measuring childbearing attitudes among unmarried women—a group relatively underrepresented in existing research—thus laying the groundwork for more comprehensive and in-depth investigations into the multifaceted issue of low fertility in Korea.

This study examined how parental burnout influences behavioral problems in preschool-aged children through mothers’ use of adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and rejective parenting attitudes. Data were collected via an online survey from 400 mothers raising children aged 3-5 years. The main findings of this study are as follows. First, significant correlations were found between parental burnout, internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems in preschool children, mothers’ adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, and rejective parenting attitudes. Second, although mothers’ adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies did not directly affect the relationship between parental burnout and children's internalizing behavioral problems, a sequential double mediation effect was observed for rejective parenting attitudes. Third, regarding the relationship between parental burnout and externalizing behavioral problems, both adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and rejective parenting attitudes demonstrated significant double mediation effects. This study discusses these findings significance, implications, and limitations.