이 연구의 목적은 특수영유아 부모 관련 국내연구의 키워드 의미연결망을 분석함으로써 관련 분야 연구의 핵심어를 탐색하고 키워드 간의 구조를 밝히는 데 있다. 이를 위해 2000년부터 2020년까지 특수영유아 부모를 주제로 한국연구재단 등재학술지와 등재후보학술지에 게재된 논문 228편에서 134종 883개의 키워드를 추출하였다. 연구의 경향을 분석하기 위해 주제어의 출현빈도를 산출했으며, UCINET6 프로그램으로 네트워크의 구조적 속성과 중심성, 에고네트워크를 분석한 다음 NetDraw로 시각화했다. 그 결과, 첫째, 특수영유아 부모 연구에는 ‘발달지체’, ‘사회적 상호작용’, ‘유아교사’, ‘자폐스펙트럼장애’, ‘인식’ 등의 키워드가 자주 등장했다. 둘째, 전체 네트워크는 134개의 노드가 1,982개의 링크로 연결되고 밀도가 낮은 성긴 구조였다. 셋째, ‘발달지체’, ‘사회적 상호작용’, ‘유아교사’, ‘양육스트레스’, ‘자폐스펙트럼장애’, ‘부모교육’, ‘양육효능감’, ‘의사소통’, ‘요구’, ‘인식’, ‘가족지원’의 키워드가 중심성이 높은 핵심어였다. 넷째, ‘발달지체’ 에고네트워크는 ‘사회적 상호작용’, ‘언어’, ‘가족지원’, ‘발달’, ‘부모교육’, ‘양육스트레스’, ‘양육효능감, ’의사소통’과 연결강도가 높았고, ‘사회적 상호작용’은 ‘발달지체’, ‘자폐스펙트럼장애’, ‘양육효능감’, ‘놀이’, ‘부모교육’과, 그리고 ‘양육스트레스’는 ‘양육효능감’, ‘발달지체’, ‘자폐스펙트럼장애’, ‘문제행동’, ‘우울’, ‘사회적 상호작용’과 강한 연결을 가졌다. 이 연구는 특수영유아 부모 연구에서 중추적으로 다루어지는 개념들의 구조를 찾아내어, 선행연구들의 초점을 확인하였고, 추후 특수영유아 부모 연구와 특수영유아 가족지원을 위한 시사점을 논의하였다.

The purpose of this study was to explore the keywords of domestic research related to parents of infants and young children with special needs and to reveal the structure between keywords through keyword network analysis. From 2000 to 2020, 883 keywords of 134 types were extracted from 228 papers published in journals. To analyze the research trend, the frequency of the keywords was calculated. After analyzing the structural properties, centrality, and ego network with UCINET6 program, the trend was visualized with NetDraw. As a result, first, keywords such as ‘developmental delay’, ‘social interaction’, ‘early childhood teachers’, ‘autism spectrum disorder’, and ‘awareness’ frequently appeared. Second, the network had 134 nodes connected by 1,982 links and was sparse structure with low density. Third, ‘developmental delays’, ‘social interactions’, ‘early childhood teachers’, ‘parenting stress’, ‘autism spectrum disorders’, ‘parent education’, ‘parenting efficacy’, ‘communication’, ‘needs’, ‘awareness’, ‘family support’ were keywords with high centrality. Fourth, it was found that the Ego Network, ‘developmental delays’ was strongly linked to ‘social interaction’, ‘language’, ‘family support’, ‘development’, ‘parent education’, ‘parenting stress’, ‘parenting efficacy’, and ‘communication’. Also, ‘social interaction’ was strongly connected to ‘developmental delays’, ‘autism spectrum disorder’, ‘parenting efficacy’, ‘play’, ‘parent education’. Lastly, ‘parenting stress’ had a strong connection with ‘parenting efficacy’, ‘developmental delay’, ‘autism spectrum disorder’, ‘problematic behavior’, ‘depression’, and ‘social interaction’. This study found the structure of concepts that are mainly dealt with in studies and confirmed the focus of previous studies. It provided implications for research on parents and family support on young children with special needs.