The Impact of Pre-service Early Childhood Teachers' Empathic Ability on Adaptive Emotional Regulation Strategies: Focusing on the Mediating Role of Interpersonal Relationship Skills

Objectives This study aimed to analyze the relationship between pre-service early childhood teachers' empathic ability, interpersonal relationship skills, and adaptive emotional regulation strategies. Additionally, it sought to in-vestigate the impact of pre-service early childhood teachers' empathic ability and interpersonal relationship skills on adaptive emotional regulation strategies. Furthermore, the purpose was to illuminate the mediating effect of interpersonal relationship skills in the relationship between empathic ability and adaptive emotional regulation strategies. Methods A total of 175 pre-service early childhood teachers enrolled in the Early Childhood Education Department of a 2-year college located in Seoul were surveyed regarding their empathic ability, interpersonal relationship skills, and adaptive emotional regulation strategies. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS 18.0 software to compute Pearson's r and conduct regression analysis. Results First, it was found that there were significant correlations among pre-service early childhood teachers' empathic ability, interpersonal relationship skills, and adaptive emotional regulation strategies. Second, empathic ability and interpersonal relationship skills emerged as predictors of adaptive emotional regulation strategies. Third, in terms of the impact of empathic ability on adaptive emotional regulation strategies, interpersonal rela-tionship skills were found to have a partial mediating effect. Conclusions The enhancement of empathic ability and interpersonal relationship skills suggests the potential to increase the utilization of adaptive emotional regulation strategies among pre-service early childhood teachers. This implies providing insights for the development of programs aimed at enhancing pre-service early childhood teachers' empathic ability and interpersonal relationship skills, ultimately enabling them to utilize adaptive emo-tional regulation strategies.