The relationship between emotional behavior characteristics reported by parents and teachers and language of Korean mono-cultural and culturally diverse children

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether parents and teachers' reports on emotional behavior characteristics of Korean mono-cultural and culturally diverse children are consistent. We tried to identify whether the strength (prosocial behavior) of emotional behavior characteristics significantly explains their language ability as a protective factor explaining the language ability of culturally diverse-typically developing children (D-TD). Methods: Participants were 18 Korean mono-cultural children (TD 11, LD 7) and 32 culturally diverse children (TD 16, LD 16) aged 4 to 6 years old, and their parents and teachers. Emotional behavior characteristics were measured using the Korean version of the Strength Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-Kr), which included the strength of pro-social behavior, and difficulties of hyperactivity, emotional symptoms, behavioral problems, and peer problems. Results: Parent-teacher reports on the emotional behavior of each group of children were consistent, with the exception that parents perceived their children's difficulties higher than teachers in culturally diverse-language delay (D-LD) children. In the Korean mono-cultural children group, the teachers' peer problem report explained the expressive language significantly; whereas in the culturally diverse children group, the parent's hyperactivity report significantly explained the receptive language. In D-TD group, parent's report of prosocial behavior explained receptive language significantly. Conclusion: The importance of parent reports was more significant in culturally diverse children as the parent's report significantly explained the receptive language. In particular, in the case of D-TD group who had normal language ability, it was confirmed that children's prosocial behavior reported by parents could contribute significantly to language ability.