ABSTRACT

Despite South Korea’s declining fertility rate and increased parental investment in early childhood, research on the effects of parental involvement during prenatal and postnatal periods on infant development remainslimited. This study investigated how parental involvement in prenatal and postnatal parenting affects infants’ social and cognitive development. Participants included 707 children from South Korea, selected from thefirst wave of the Korean Early Childhood Education & Care Panel Study (2024). The Korea Institute of Child Care and Education supervised the study, which began with a baseline survey in September 2021 andcontinued through December 2022. The panel sample was chosen using a stratified cluster sampling method. Descriptive statistics summarized key variables, Pearson’s correlation coefficients assessed relationshipsamong variables, and hierarchical multiple regression determined the relative influence of parental involvement on infants’ development. The findings are as follows. First, the scores for mothers’ physical andemotional activities during pregnancy and fathers’ participation in childbirth and parenting-related education were at moderate levels, whereas the scores for postnatal variables such as mothers’ parenting behaviors and fathers’ involvement in parenting were relatively high. Infants’ social and cognitive development scores were high relative to the scale midpoints. Second, mothers’ prenatal activities, postnatal parenting behaviors, and fathers’ involvement in parenting were positively correlated with infants’ social and cognitive development. Third, infants’ gender, infants’ age in months, and fathers’ involvement in parenting were common variables influencing both social and cognitive development. Mothers’ prenatal activities and postnatal parenting behaviors affected social development. Infants’ age in months had the strongest effect on both social andcognitive development. These findings indicate the need for policies that support both mothers’ and fathers’ involvement in prenatal and postnatal parenting to promote infants’ social and cognitive development.

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