In response to the recent series of child abuse cases that have been brought to light, efforts are being made to revitalize parental education in order to promote its effectiveness and participation. [Interview] To increase the Korean people’s participation and interest in parental education, the correlation between the parental role and early childhood development must first be discerned and a public consensus must be formed regarding the significance of the former. Accordingly, this study aims to empirically analyze the relationship between parents’ roles and early childhood development, and to present the implications for parental roles and measures to improve policies on parental education. In order to examine the correlation between parents’ roles and early childhood development, data in the Panel Study on Korean Children on maternal depression, parenting stress and style, paternal involvement and home environmental stimuli tests were applied to the analysis. Additionally, parents’ education levels and household income were also reviewed for relevance. The results show that the degree of linguistic development in early childhood is indeed associated with not only the parent’s education level but also their parental role. This implies that if parenting styles and the home environment were to improve, the transference of the parent’s abilities to their children could be mitigated. With regards to early childhood socio-emotional development, it was found that there is a close connection to parental roles, for example, the higher the levels of maternal depression and parenting stress are, and the lower the levels of parent-child interaction and desirable parenting styles are, the less development there is in the child’s linguistic abilities. Meanwhile, the parent’s education level and household income had no relevance. To examine which parenting styles in particular are effective in enhancing linguistic development, parent’s parenting styles were examined from two perspectives: responsiveness and demandingness. Responsiveness refers to how well the parents understand their children and how much they respect their children’s opinions while demandingness refers to how much the parents emphasize rules setting and compliance. In terms of parenting style, it was found that linguistic and socio-emotional development in early childhood improved with parents consistently being responsive while decreasing their demandingness as their children become older. Accordingly, the analysis results show that in order to encourage the participation of parents in parental education, programs must be designed in line with parents’ parenting capabilities and not their socioeconomic status. [Interview] The results of the study evidence the significance of parents’ roles in enhancing linguistic and socio-emotional development in early childhood. In order to improve parental roles, parental education materials across different government ministries must be integrated to provide parents with situation-based assistance, thus increasing the utilization and effectiveness of such information. Additionally, parents should be provided with expert consultation and the number and types of programs must be expanded.