Kyong-Ah Kwon

• PhD
• Professor and Drusa B. Cable Endowed Chair at University of Oklahoma

Objective This study aimed to identify early reading achievers and uncover family and child factors that mitigate reading skill disparities. Background Literacy standards guide educational policy to prevent literacy issues in at‐risk children. Many studies lack accurate methods to measure reading milestones, relying on static approaches that miss...

We used multilevel survival analysis with a longitudinal database to examine Head Start teacher turnover trends and their relationships with teacher, child, and work environment characteristics. The annual turnover rate ranged from 18 to 41%. After controlling for various covariates, we found that teachers with higher education levels, fewer years...

This study used naturalistic audio–visual recordings from early care and education (ECE) settings to examine the associations between toddlers' (76 toddlers, 40 female, M age = 32.94 months, SD = 4.92 months) multimodal emotion expressions and emotion‐related vocalizations with contingent teacher interventions. Findings indicated a correspondence b...

This present study examined relations among parental math attitudes, expectations, and practice, and preschool children’s math achievement (i.e., parental math practice as a mediator) that may differ between Korean and U.S. samples. We examined measurement invariance to minimize the bias and inaccurate estimates in scores in two samples, which is a...

Despite the acknowledged impact of early science achievement on future success, there is a noticeable gap in research focused on understanding the dynamic longitudinal patterns of children attaining science learning milestones in their early years, as well as few investigations of potential factors that may mitigate gender, racial/ethnic, and socio...

High‐quality early care and education (ECE) programs are associated with positive outcomes, especially for children from low‐income families. During the initial COVID‐19 pandemic lockdown many of these families faced an abrupt halt to ECE. Here, we examined how toddlers from economically disadvantaged backgrounds enrolled in high‐quality ECE progra...

The documented challenges of the early care and education (ECE) workforce include poor well-being, inadequate compensation, and high turnover rates. The COVID-19 pandemic not only exacerbated these issues, but also imposed additional demands such as virtual instruction, highlighting the need to understand how teachers’ well-being relates to their a...

There has been a marked increase in attention to educators’ well-being since the pandemic. The majority of this research activity, however, has been focused on the well-being of early childhood teachers while the challenges of early childhood leaders have gone largely undocumented. Using a holistic conceptualization of leader well-being along with...

The importance of leadership for key educational outcomes is well documented, yet leaders’ working conditions and well-being have received considerably less attention, particularly in the early care and education (ECE) sector. Job-Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory was used to develop a holistic conceptualization of leader well-being for the purpose o...

The war in Ukraine significantly impacts the mental health and well-being of its youth. Like other communities affected by war, Ukraine’s youth are at risk of developing psychopathological symptoms, and there is a shortage of mental health and psychosocial support services to address this. Resilience-building initiatives present an alternative appr...

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to determine individual, sociocultural, policy , and economic predictors of overweight/obesity in early care and education (ECE) teachers to identify modifiable opportunities to enhance the health of this critical workforce. ECE teachers (n = 1434) in the U.S. completed an online survey in late spring t...

Early childhood teachers routinely facilitate play-based learning experiences in their physical classrooms; however, the pivot to virtual teaching platforms created a barrier for providing age appropriate, play-based learning opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are few studies exploring how to promote play in the virtual classroom or...

Preschool children’s relationships with their teachers play an important role in their learning and development. Despite this importance, extant research mostly relies on teachers’ perceptions about the relationships with children limiting our understanding of the bidirectional nature of these relationships. The present study aimed to explore teach...

Using the nationally representative Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey 2014 (FACES 2014), this study examined the associations of Head Start children’s behavioral challenges with teachers’ well-being (i.e., depressive symptoms, job commitment) and intent to leave, controlling for teacher characteristics. We sought to explore the direct...

While a global understanding of teacher well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic is beginning to emerge, much remains to be understood about what early childhood teachers have felt and experienced with respect to their work and well-being. The present mixed-method study examined early care and education (ECE) teachers’ working conditions and physica...

Early care and education (ECE) teachers are constantly moving throughout their day with varying physical demands akin to those of athletes. Teachers are continuously bending, stooping, and squatting to lift and carry children as well as sitting on the floor or in child-sized furniture—all activities that require substantial fitness. This said, many...

The purpose of this study was to examine the frequency of and relationship between responsive feeding practices used during early childhood education (ECE) mealtimes and high-quality teaching practices and teacher characteristics. We found variation in teachers’ use of responsive feeding practices. Teachers were more often observed using role model...

The majority of teachers in the early care and education (ECE) workforce face disparities in physical and psychological well-being as well as working conditions. This study examined the working conditions and physical, psychological, and profes-sional well-being of early childhood teachers and compared the results by the child age group they care f...

The original version of this article unfortunately contains some typo in Table 1.

Considered a “frontline” organization, some early childhood education (ECE) centers remained open during the COVID pandemic, others were temporarily closed, while still others experimented with various virtual learning approaches. The increased use of virtual approaches in ECE raises questions about teachers’ experiences with it and the challenges...

Seeking personal well-being and life satisfaction during a global pandemic can be daunting, such is the case for early care and education teachers who were considered non-health care essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The potential changes in their physical activity, along with their overall physical and psychological well-being, may h...

Research findings: All teachers have demanding jobs and work with limited resources. However, working with young children with disabilities may place additional demands on early childhood special education (ECSE) teachers which may impact their well-being. Using the Job Demands and Resources model, the present study aimed to predict ECSE teachers'...

Using a holistic conceptualization of teacher well-being in concert with the Job Demands and Resources (JD-R) framework, our interdisciplinary study examined associations among various job demands and resources and whole teacher well-being (i.e., professional, psychological, and physical well-being) in early care and education settings. First, we i...

This book presents developmentally appropriate and culturally relevant practices for engaging early learners and their families in informal arts settings. It illustrates how an interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers and practitioners can improve museum practices. As such, the book will be of interest to researchers and students engaged...

Using the Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Study (Baby FACES; Vogel & Boller, 2009-2012), the present study employed a person-centered approach to identify profiles of family engagement in home- and center-based Early Head Start (EHS) programs. We identified three profiles with different patterns across two structural dimensions (home...

This study investigates how school-level standardized testing policy at Grade 1 is directly and indirectly linked to math achievement in primary grades. Using nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort data drawn from the U.S., the sample consists of 6774 children nested in 925 elementary schools. Findings from...

The present study aims to address the issues of teacher turnover and retention for infant-toddler teachers by exploring the reasons underlying teachers' intent to leave and stay, and the consequences of teacher turnover at multiple levels through interviews with 30 teachers. We found teachers' reasons for leaving or staying are often multi-faceted,...

Executive function and learning behaviour play an important role in children's academic outcomes by helping them maintain attention, work cooperatively, and stay focused, especially for those from lower family socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. This study explored whether these learning-related skills were associated with children's concurrent...

This study examined whether mother-teacher, father-teacher, teacher-parent, and teacher-child relationships were linked to the socioemotional functioning of children (N = 42) aged 18–40 months. Results indicated that when mothers perceived their child’s teacher more positively, fathers perceived the teacher more positively. In turn, teachers also p...

The present study examined whether teachers' depressive symptoms are directly and indirectly associated with children's social-emotional and language development in the context of Early Head Start (EHS) center-based programs. We used the EHS Family and Child Experiences Study (i.e., Baby FACES 2009) with a sample of 275 toddlers and 197 teachers in...

This shows descriptive statistics on early childhood teachers' physical and psychological well-being and their work condition.

This study examined the associations of preschool children’s executive function (EF) and learning behaviour (CLB) with their concurrent academic skills and the role of CLB as a mediator for the EF-academic skills link. One hundred seventy-nine children were assessed on EF and math and literacy skills. Parents and teachers completed a questionnaire...

Research Findings. The present study examined patterns of longitudinal associations between inhibitory control (IC) and early academic skills during the preschool and kindergarten years. Using data from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey Cohort 2009 (FACES 2009) (N = 939), a national data set of predominantly low-income children att...

Research Findings: This study used teacher questionnaires to investigate the relationships of early childhood education teachers’ depressive symptoms, professional motivation, and job-related stress to their beliefs about children and teaching practices. Teachers (N = 207) were recruited from early childhood education programs in the southern Unite...

Approximately 7 million 0- to 5-year-old children attend family child care, which is a non-parental, paid care provided in a child care provider's home in the U.S. Despite the importance of family child care providers’ role in supporting young children's development, studies on family child care providers’ responsiveness for children in their care...

Although interpreting and applying the professional teaching standards is a complex and active cognitive process influenced by teachers' knowledge and teaching context, there is a lack of in-depth research into how early childhood teachers' cognition impacts the way teachers change their beliefs and practices. With a cognitive framework, this study...

The purpose of this study was to examine college students’ culturally-mediated perceptions, prevalence, and experiences of helicopter parenting and its potential impact on their development. Using an online survey platform, we conducted an online survey of 40 Korean American college students in three large universities in the Southeastern region of...

The current study examined (1) associations among teachers’ experiences regarding children with disabilities (i.e., education, specialized training, years of work experience), their attitudes toward disabilities, and their classroom practices in relation to inclusion and (2) associations among children’s attitudes toward peers with disabilities and...

This study examined associations among parenting style, home literacy practices, and children's language skills. A total of 181 ethnically diverse parents, primarily African American, and their preschool‐aged child participated. Results suggest that an authoritative parenting style was positively associated with informal home literacy (book reading...

In school contexts where corporal punishment is permitted, teachers have two potentially conflicting roles; an indirect participant in the administration of corporal punishment and as a mandated reporter of child maltreatment. Attitudes influenced by racial group may further complicate the issue. The purpose of this study was to examine the associa...

This study examined the relationships among acculturative stress, coping styles, self-efficacy, English language proficiency, and various demographic characteristics as predictors of procrastination behavior in Asian International students (N = 255) studying in the United States. Results of multiple logistic regression indicated that a collective c...

The purpose of the present study is to revisit and validate the current conceptualization of helicopter parenting with Korean college students by using the Helicopter Parenting Scale. Using an individuation-separation process framework from family systems theory, we also examined associations between college student’s retrospective self-report of t...

Background Little empirical research examines the process in which home literacy environment (HLE) in toddlerhood is associated with preschoolers’ vocabulary and decoding skills using a large-scale dataset. Objective The purposes of the current study were to (a) examine the differential effect of HLE in toddlerhood on preschoolers’ vocabulary versu...

The present study examined three hypothesized models that describe associations among coparenting quality (as perceived by both parents), parents’ gentle guidance, and toddlers’ social emotional competencies: (a) direct associations; (b) mediational associations (coparenting quality is associated with toddlers’ social emotional competencies through...

Research Findings: This study examined the unique and relative contributions of mothers’ and fathers’ parental control and coparenting to toddlers’ committed compliance with parents in both dyadic parent–child and triadic family play contexts. Sixty-eight mostly middle-class, 2-parent families with toddlers (16–37 months) were observed in a univers...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the following: (i) associations among children's prior contact with people with disabilities and the three dimensions of children's attitudes towards people with disabilities: children's understanding of and their feelings about people with disabilities and their behavioural intentions to make inclusion...

Background Teacher qualifications have been emphasized as a basis of professional development to improve classroom practices for at-risk children’s school readiness. However, teacher qualifications have often not been compared to another form of professional development, in-service training. Objective The current study attempts to investigate contr...

Background Little empirical research examines relations among the quality of both mothers’ and fathers’ social emotional and linguistic support of toddlers across multiple parent–child interaction contexts. Objective The current study investigated the influence of parent gender (mother vs. father) and activity setting (structured task vs. free play...

Research Findings: Interpersonal relationships among staff caregivers, parents, and children have been recommended as essential aspects of early childhood intervention. This study explored the associations of these relationships with program outcomes for children and parents in 3 Early Head Start programs. A total of 71 children (8–35 months, M = 2...

This study examined mothers’ and fathers’ parenting challenges and strategies/resources used when parenting toddlers. Through a qualitative interview protocol, implemented with mothers and fathers separately at a university laboratory, this study found that both fathers and mothers appeared to be transitioning from traditional gender roles towards...

The present study examined three hypothesized models that describe associations among coparenting quality (as perceived by both parents), parents' gentle guidance, and toddlers' social emotional competencies: (a) direct associations; (b) mediational associations (coparenting quality is associated with toddlers' social emotional competencies through...

This study investigated mothers' and fathers' language use in dyadic and triadic contexts. Specific attention was paid to factors associated with the quantity and quality of mother and father language use in triadic settings. Sixty-three predominantly middle-class, two-parent families with toddlers (age 16 to 37 months) participated. Mother–child a...

Based on a family systems perspective, this research examined the role of parental gender and family play context in parent–toddler interactions and how behaviours of family members influence each other. Sixty-seven mostly White, middle-class families consisting of a mother, father and toddler were videotaped in three separate sessions: mother–chil...

The purpose of this study was to examine: (a) the role of teacher talk in promoting peer interaction, (b) the adequacy of social IEP objectives to reflect children’s social functioning and guide provision of teacher talk, and (c) differences in children’s peer interaction and teacher talk in inclusive and segregated settings. Thirty children with d...

This qualitative study examined the experiences of Asian international graduate students and spouses with children at a university in the U.S. Participants (n=31) from China, Korea, the Philippines, and Taiwan were interviewed regarding their stressors. Some stressors were identified in the answers of the group as a whole: (a) adjustment to a new c...

This qualitative study examined the experiences of Asian international graduate students and spouses with children at a university in the U.S. Participants (n=31) from China, Korea, the Philippines, and Taiwan were interviewed regarding their stressors. Some stressors were identified in the answers of the group as a whole: (a) adjustment to a new c...

Child maltreatment represents a serious threat to children's rights and is a grave problem in the US and around the world. It is the second leading cause of death for children in the US. Each year, hundreds of thousands of reports are made to child protective services across the US. A fraction of these reports are made by the alleged victims of chi...

The goal of the present study was to describe the early development of social emotional competence and behavior problems in toddlers and to examine associations among coparenting, individual parenting, and socio-emotional outcomes in toddlers. Sixty seven (67) working- and middle-class, two-parent families with toddlers aged 16 to 36 months and the...