Maternal and Paternal Playfulness: Predictors and Relation to Children´s Vocabulary and Regulatory Skills

• In Event: 1-027 - Parental playfulness: The key for children´s positive development?

Integrative Statement

Introduction: Despite consensus that play is fundamental for children’s development (Lillard et al., 2013), we still know little about the ways in which low-income parents (mothers and fathers) engage in play with their young children and how parent-child play relates to child development. There has been evidence reported that the quality of play in the mother/father -child interactions is predictive of children language and social skills (e.g., Tamis Le-Monda et al., 2004). More recent studies have examined the type of play and suggest that parents´ use of creativity, humor, and curiosity when interacting in play with children (playfulness) relate to children´s language and regulatory skills, and that the effect is different for maternal and paternal playfulness (Malin et al., 2017). Another line of research suggests that maternal characteristics (e.g., stress and mental health) are related to the quality of parenting (e.g., Crnic, Gaze & Hoffman, 2005). However, it is not clear how these factors relate to mothers and fathers playfulness. Understanding how playfulness unfolds in diverse contexts (cultures) is critical for interventions because play is an activity that is fun and enjoyable, and is relatively low-cost and accessible (Evans & English, 2002).
Research questions/Hypotheses: We asked whether (1) mothers and fathers differ in their playfulness and quality of interactions; (2) parental characteristics relate to parents´ playfulness and quality of interactions; (3) mothers' and fathers’ playfulness relates to children's vocabulary controlling for quality of interactions in a Chilean sample.
Study population and methods: Participant were 100 three-year-old children and their mothers and fathers (table 1). Both parents completed a questionnaire (educational level, parental involvement, parenting stress, and depressive symptoms). Mother-child and father-child interactions were videotaped and coded for playfulness using the Parental Playfulness System (PPS; Atzaba- Poria et al., 2014) and for positive and negative aspects of parenting using the PARCHISY (Deater-Deckard, 2000). Children´s language development was assessed with the PPVT (Dunn & Dunn, 1997) and regulatory skills with a delay of gratification task.
Results: Preliminary results based on 22 families suggest that mothers and fathers engaged in similar levels of playfulness with their children (M=2.91, SD= 1.06; M= 3.05, SD= 1.33). Neither depressive symptoms nor parenting stress related to parental playfulness. Mother who displayed higher levels of playfulness reported being more involved with their children (r=.43, p= .04) and showed lower levels of intrusiveness (r= -.44, p= .03). Mothers whose partner displayed higher levels of playfulness showed higher levels of warmth in their interaction with their children compared to mothers whose partners were less playful. Further analyses will be conducted predicting children’s vocabulary from maternal and paternal playfulness, controlling for the quality of the interactions. Complete results will be reported in the conference.
Discussion. This study extends prior research on parental playfulness by examining predictors of playfulness and the effects of mothers’ and fathers’ playfulness on children’s regulatory skills and vocabulary in an understudied sample.

Authors

• Daniela Aldoney, Universidad del Desarrollo
  Presenting Author

• Fernanda Prieto, Centro de Apego y Regulación Emocional (CARE), Facultad de Psicología, Universidad del Desarrollo
  Non-Presenting Author

• Soledad Coo, Universidad del Desarrollo
  Non-Presenting Author