The Importance of Maternal and Paternal Playfulness Among Families with Children Diagnosed with Developmental Delay

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

Integrative Statement

Introduction: Children diagnosed with developmental delay (DD) are at a higher risk for behavior problems, but parental behavior can reduce this risk. In this study, we propose that to better understand parental behavior, research should focus on parental playfulness as well as the well-studied parental sensitivity variable. Parental playfulness is the manner (the level of creativity and fun) by which parents play with their children. Because parents of children with DD tend to interact with their children in a more intrusive and directive manner, it is of interest to study the way playfulness is expressed in these families. Furthermore, because most of the studies considering parental characteristics focus on mothers, we aim to study both maternal and paternal parenting behaviors.
Hypotheses: 1. (a) Children in the DD group will show elevated levels of behavioral problems compared to the typically developing (TD) group; (b) Parents in the DD group will show lower levels of parental sensitivity and playfulness compared to parents in the TD group. 2. Moderation model: Parental playfulness will moderate the links between group (DD/TD) and behavioral problems.
Study population: Participants in this study included 156 children (aged 4-7 years old) and their mothers and fathers; 75 families had a child who was diagnosed with DD who attended special education schools.
Methods: Both parents completed questionnaires; mother-child and father-child interactions were videotaped. Behavioral problems were assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991). Parental sensitivity was assessed using the Emotional Availability Scale (Biringen, 2010). Parental playfulness was assessed using the Parental Playfulness System (Atzaba-Poria et al., 2018).
Results: As hypothesized, children in the DD group exhibited higher levels of behavioral problems compared to children in the DD group [mother’s report: t(148)=5.48, p< .001; father’s report: t(142)=3.86, p < .001]. Both mothers and fathers in the DD group showed lower levels of sensitivity [mothers: t(146)=-4.69, p<.001; fathers: t(141)=-4.36, p<.001] and lower levels of playfulness [mothers: t(136) = -4.87, p< .001; fathers: t(130)= -2.88, p< .01] than parents in the TD group (Table 1).
Additionally, paternal (but not maternal) playfulness acted as a moderator in the link between group belonging and child behavioral problems. Specifically, an interaction between group (DD/TD) and playfulness) revealed that the relation between group and behavioral problems was significant under low paternal playfulness (β=.51, p<.001) but not under high paternal playfulness (β=.15, ns) (Figure 1). No moderation effect was found for parental sensitivity.
Conclusions: Parental playfulness is an important variable that needs to be considered when studying children’s adjustment, especially in families having children with DD. Paternal playfulness, more than sensitivity, seems to act as a buffer, reducing behavioral problems among children having DD. These findings highlight the need for intervention programs that emphasize the importance of playfulness among parents, especially fathers of children with DD.

Authors

• Kinneret Levavi, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Presenting Author

• Atara Menashe, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Non-Presenting Author

• Naama Atzaba-Poria, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  Non-Presenting Author