Validating a Measure of Parental and Child Playfulness: Comparisons Between Mothers and Fathers of Preschoolers

• In Event: Beyond Caregiver Sensitivity: An Exploration of Parental Behaviors in Mothers and Fathers

Abstract

Developmental research has shown that some parental behaviors (e.g., sensitivity) support positive child development. Yet, other parental behaviors have been neglected, such as parental playfulness. Parental playfulness is defined as parents’ use of creativity, imagination, and humor during parent-child interactions (Menashe-Grinberg & Atzaba-Poria, 2017), which is associated with greater emotional and language skills (Cabrera et al., 2017). Although some measures tap into parents’ (e.g., Shorer et al., 2019) and children’s playfulness (e.g., Rogers, 1998), these measures are limited. Indeed, they do not assess multiple domains of playfulness (i.e., both parents’ and the child’s playfulness). Additionally, existing measures do not consider parents’ reactions to their partners’ playfulness. This may be an important aspect of family dynamics to consider, given that playful parenting may be considered unconventional and disruptive by nature, and may thereby be frowned upon by a co-parent. To address this gap, we created the Playful Parenting Style Questionnaire (PPSQ), which assesses three domains of playfulness: (a) parental domain, (b) child domain, and (c) partner domain.
The current study is part of a validation effort of the PPSQ. We aimed to (a) explore the structure of the PPSQ by conducting an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) for each domain of playfulness; (b) assess the convergent validity between the PPSQ factors and existing measures of playful parenting, child playfulness, and co-parenting; and (c) determine whether PPSQ scores and associations differ based on parent gender.
The validation sample includes 330 parents (280 mothers and 50 fathers) of preschool/school-age children (M = 5 years; 53% girls). Parents were mostly White (76%) and from a low socioeconomic risk background. Parents completed a series of online questionnaires including the PPSQ, 6 existing measures of playfulness and coparenting (see Table 1), and sociodemographic information.
The EFA revealed 4 factors for parental playfulness, 2 factors for child playfulness, and 3 factors for partner’s playfulness (see Table 1). The convergent validity analyses identified multiple associations indicating convergence with existing measures (see Table 1). To provide but a few examples, the parent rough-and-tumble factor of the PPSQ was significantly correlated with the rough-and-tumble scale of the Challenging Parenting Behavior Questionnaire (Majdandzic et al., 2018). The child controlled affect factor of the PPSQ was significantly associated with less joy in the Children’s Playfulness Scale (Barnett, 1991). Similarly, the PPSQ factor of feeling excluded from partner-child relationship was associated with more undermining and less agreement on the Coparenting Relationship Scale (Feinberg et al., 2012). Finally, a series of t-tests showed that fathers reported engaging in more teasing and more RTP, and perceived their child to be more rigid than mothers (see Table 2). In general, our results support the validity of the PPSQ questionnaire. They also suggest that playfulness is observed in mothers and fathers, despite a tendency for fathers to report more teasing and RTP. These findings support the greater literature on similarities between parents regardless of gender (Fagan et al., 2014), and support the use of the PPSQ as a new multi-domain measure of playfulness in parents and children.

Authors

• Jean-Francois Bureau, University of Ottawa
  Presenting Author

• Khachadour Bandk

• Harshita Seal, University of Ottawa

• Audrey-Ann Deneault, University of Calgary (U of C)