Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore the effect of parental attitude on the behavioral problems in children who visited the traditional Korean pediatrics clinic.

Methods: The subjects were consist of 190 outpatients (56.6μ12.9 months) and their mother. The Behavior problems of children were measured with Korean version of Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 1.5-5 (K-CBCL1.5-5) while parental perception of child vulnerability, parent overprotection, parenting stress were measured by Child Vulnerability Scale (CVS), Parent Protection Scale(PPS), Korean-Parenting Stress Index-Short Form scale (K-PSI-SF), respectively. Correlation and multiple regression were conducted for the analysis.

Results: Significant correlations between child total problems score and child vulnerability (r=.272, p<.001), parent overprotection(r=.243, p=.001), and parenting stress (r=.597, p<.001) were reported. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the parenting stress(β=.548, p<.001) was a major predictor for the child behavior problems rather than child vulnerability and parent overprotection.

Conclusions: It was shown that the parenting stress has a significant influence on the emotional and behavioral development of children. These results can be useful for improving clinical diagnosis and treatment in traditional Korean pediatrics.