Poster #157 - Predictors of Specific Types of Play in 3-6 Year-Olds

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Perceptual, Sensory, Motor

Integrative Statement

Children’s play is considered an essential aspect of early development (Lin & Li, 2018). Different subtypes of play have been proposed, with forms of play linked to creativity (Hoffman & Russ, 2012), social skills (Pellegrini, 1988), and temperament (Fabes et al., 1997). In addition, boys and girls differ in play patterns (Fabes, Martin, & Hanish, 2003). There is further evidence parents shape play with encouragement of and involvement in specific forms of play (Parmar, Harkness, & Super, 2004, 2008; Roopnarine, 2011), with parental beliefs about play predicting play occurrence when involvement was included in modeling (Lin & Li, 2018).
This investigation examined parent-reported play occurrence in 3-6 year-olds (N = 161). Specifically, six types of play (pretend play, active play, rough and tumble play, adventure play, art play, and puzzle/building play) were predicted by child gender, creativity, temperament (surgency, negative affectivity, effortful control), friendships/social skills, and parental approval of each type of play.
Participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). The sample was 62.09% Caucasian, 20.33% Asian/Pacific Islander, 11.54% African American, 8.79% Latino or Hispanic, and 2.20% Native American, Aleut, or Aboriginal Peoples. The mean parental age was 31.43 (SD = 5.43), and average child age was 53.48 months (SD = 11.51). Most parents (73.51%) were married. Only 7.03% had not attended college.
The measures of play occurrence and play approval were developed for the current study, and types of play were derived from factor analysis. Other constructs were measured using previously validated instruments, the Revised Parental Evaluation of Children’s Creativity (PECC-R) for creativity, the Friendships and Social Skills Test (FASST; Whiteside et al., 2016) for friendships/social skills, and the Child Behavior Questionnaire -Very Short Form (CBQ; Rothbart, 1996) for temperament.
Results of multiple regression revealed that pretend play was significantly (p < .05) predicted by gender (β = -.23; girls coded as 1, boys coded as 2), friendships/social skills (β = .45), and effortful control (β = .17). Active play was significantly associated with creativity (β = .21), friendships/social skills (β = .37), surgency (β = .13), and parental approval of active play (β = .43). Rough and tumble play was linked to friendships/social skills (β = .32), negative affectivity (β = .14), and parental approval of rough and tumble play (β = .40). Adventure play was related to gender (β = .22), friendships/social skills (β = .33), and parental approval of adventure play. Art play was associated with creativity (β = .32), gender (β = -.17), effortful control (β = .17), and parental approval of art play (β = .19). Finally, puzzle/building play was predicted by creativity (β = .42), friendships/social skills (β = .35), and negative affectivity (β = -.18).
These results support of complex pattern of relationships between types of play and the predictors examined, with different types of play being linked to unique sets of individual and environmental factors. Further research should address the different types of children’s play and continue examination of the potential causes and consequences of each type of play.

Author

• Sara Sohr-Preston, Southeastern Louisiana University
  Presenting Author