Abstract

The goal of this study is to investigate the relationship between maternal rearing behavior characteristics and elementary school children's Internet use, and to utilize the results as the basic data to develop a program, in which parents learn how to educate their children for better use of the Internet. The subjects were 713 children whose grade are in fourth through sixth in an elementary school. Data were obtained with questionnaires. The instruments employed were Children's Internet Use and Addiction, and maternal rearing behavior characteristics-Rational Guidance, Affection, Authoritarian Control, Overprotection, Achievement Encouragement, and Active Involvement-Scales. The data were analyzed with the SPSS program. They were analyzed by Frequency, Percentage, ANOVA, Duncan's test, and Pearson correlation. The results of this study are as follows: First, 30.2% of the subjects has used Internet for more than three years. 55.6% of the subjects spend less than an hour per day in using the Internet. The two major types of Internet use were playing games(49.9%) and sending e-mails(25.4%). The main reason for playing Internet games was escape from stress(34.7%). 34.5% of the subjects also said that their parents usually encourage them to use the Internet. Second, maternal affection, authoritarian control, and active involvement were significantly different in the types of Internet use. Maternal authoritarian control and overprotection were significantly different in the reasons of doing Internet game. The rational guidance and active involvement of mothers were correlated negatively with children's Internet using time, but their authoritarian control and overprotection were correlated positively with children's Internet using time. Maternal overprotection was correlated positively with parents' encouragement level in the Internet use. Third, the rational guidance, affection, and active involvement of mothers were correlated negatively with children's Internet addiction. In the other hand, maternal authoritarian control and overprotection were correlated positively with children's Internet addiction. Lastly, children's Internet addiction was significantly different by the types of Internet Use and the reasons for doing internet game. Children's Internet using time was correlated positively with children's Internet addiction.

Keywords

• Rational guidance;
• Affection;
• Authoritarian control;
• Overprotection;
• Achievement encouragement;
• Active involvement;
• Internet addiction

• 합리적 지도;
• 애정적 양육;
• 권위주의적 통제;
• 과보호 양육;
• 성취격려;
• 적극적 참여양육;
• 인터넷 중독;