Maternal and parental playfulness with their young children. Data from the U.S., Netherlands, and Chile

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Studies on parenting are moving beyond considering mainly maternal sensitivity
and have begun to include fathers and other dimensions of parenting, to widen our comprehension of parent-child interactions and their impact on child outcomes (e.g., Malin et al., 2017). One of them is the type and quality of parent-child play. Even though play is the natural way children explore the world and its central for their positive development (Lillard et al., 2013), there are still important gaps in our knowledge about the types of play that promote child wellbeing, as well as the factors that are associated with high quality parent-child play interactions. In this proposed paper symposium, we provide an international snapshot of fathers and mothers´ playfulness and child development in three moments of development: at 9-months, 3 and 4.5-year-old. We present evidence on predictors of playfulness, the influence of different types of play on child development, and the separate and jointly influence of maternal and paternal playfulness on child development. Paper(1) focuses on how factors such as parental education, stress, and financial strain may influence the quality of mothers’ and fathers’ play with their 9-month old infants in a low- income sample; paper (2) explores how playfulness and type of play displayed by mothers and fathers relate to children´s regulatory skills and paper (3) investigates whether fathers’ and mothers’ playfulness in early childhood, separately and jointly, predict better child social competence at 4.5 years.
Overall, these papers contribute to our understanding of maternal and paternal playfulness to child development.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Daniela Aldoney, Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD)

Discussant

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

Individual Presentations

• Mothers’ and Fathers’ Parenting Stress, Education, Financial Strain and Parent-Child Play Interactions - Presenting Author: S. Alexa McDorman, University of Maryland - College Park; Non-Presenting Author: Rachel Alina Ghosh, University of Maryland - College Park; Non-Presenting Author: Kelsey McKee, University of Maryland, College Park; Non-Presenting Author: Natasha J Cabrera, University of Maryland - College Park; Non-Presenting Author: Azea Sharp, University of Maryland, College Park; Non-Presenting Author: Stephanie M Reich, University of California - Irvine

• Is all play the same? Contribution of maternal and paternal playfulness to children´s regulatory skill - Presenting Author: Daniela Aldoney, Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD); Non-Presenting Author: Fernanda Prieto, Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD)

• Fun and creative play with moms and dads: Contributions to children’s social competence - Presenting Author: Mirjana Majdandzic, Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA); Non-Presenting Author: Natasha J Cabrera, University of Maryland - College Park; Non-Presenting Author: Kelsey McKee, Office of Head Start; Non-Presenting Author: Susan Bögels, University of Amsterdam