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Me
ill-Palmer Quarterly, January 2017, Vol. 63, No. 1, pp. 105–134. doi: XXXXXXXXXX/ me
palmquar
XXXXXXXXXXCopyright © 2017 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI 48201.
Erika L. Bocknek, College of Education and Me
ill-Palmer Skillman Institute; Carolyn
Dayton, School of Social Work and Me
ill Palmer Skillman Institute; Hasti A. Raveau and
Patricia Richardson, Department of Psychology; and Holly E. Brophy-He
and Hiram E.
Fitzgerald, Human Development and Family Studies.
The findings reported here are based on research conducted as part of the national Early
Head Start Research and Evaluation Project funded by the Administration for Children and
Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract XXXXXXXXXX
to Mathematica Policy Research, Princeton, NJ, and Columbia University’s Center for Children
and Families, Teachers College, in conjunction with the Early Head Start Research Consortium.
The consortium consists of representatives from 17 programs participating in the evaluation,
15 local research teams, the evaluation contractors, and the ACF. Research institutions in the
consortium include the ACF, Catholic University of America, Columbia University, Harvard
University, Iowa State University, Mathematica Policy Research, Medical University of South
Carolina, Michigan State University, New York University, University of Arkansas; University of
California–Los Angeles, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, University of Kansas,
University of Missouri–Columbia, University of Pittsburgh, University of Washington School of
Education, University of Washington School of Nursing, and Utah State University. The content of
this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Health and
Human Services, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply
endorsement by the U.S. government.
Address co
espondence to Erika L. Bocknek, College of Education, Wayne State University,
5425 Gullen Mall, Detroit, MI XXXXXXXXXXPhone: XXXXXXXXXXFax: XXXXXXXXXXE-mail: Erika.
XXXXXXXXXX.
ME RR I LL- PA LM E R QU A R TE RLY , VOL. 63, NO. 1
Routine Active Playtime With Fathers Is Associated
With Self-Regulation in Early Childhood
Erika L. Bocknek, Carolyn Dayton, Hasti A. Raveau, and
Patricia Richardson Wayne State University
Holly E. Brophy-He
and Hiram E. Fitzgerald Michigan State University
In recent years, a literature has emerged describing contributions fathers make to
the development of very young children. Scholars suggest that active play may be
a specific area of parenting in which fathers are primary and, further, that this type
of play helps children experience intense emotions and learn to regulate them.
However, this hypothesis remains largely theoretical. The cu
ent study (N = 415)
addresses this gap in fatherhood research by using a secondary analysis of
106 Me
ill-Palmer Quarterly
data collected in the national Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project
(EHSREP) Fathering Substudy (Boller et al., 2006; Love et al., 2005) to examine
elations between fathers’ active play (measured at children’s 36-month birthday-
elated assessment) and developmental outcomes (cognitive–social and emotion
egulation) at the entry to kindergarten. Findings demonstrate that regular active
physical play between fathers and young children is associated with improved
developmental outcomes. However, findings support a curvilinear relationship
such that moderate amounts of active play are associated with better outcomes
for children, but too little or too much active play is associated with worse
outcomes, especially for children with more reactive temperamental qualities.
Importantly, these findings are not replicated in relation to other types of parent-
ing activities in which fathers engage, such as reading to children or engaging at
mealtime, suggesting there is a special relationship between this type of play and
children’s development. Furthermore, findings demonstrate that children with high
emotional reactivity may benefit the most from active playtime with their fathers.
These results are discussed in the context of the influence of fathering processes
on child and family outcomes in low-income families.
The development of self-regulation in early childhood is a critical competency,
supporting healthy development across childhood in social, cognitive, and
psychological domains (Denham, 1998; Thompson & Goodvin, XXXXXXXXXXA
consistent body of literature describes self-regulation as developing in the
context of supportive relationships with primary caregivers (Calkins & Hill,
2007; Calkins & Johnson, 1998; Denham, 1998; Sroufe, 1997), characterized
y parental support of children’s emerging regulation strategies (Bocknek,
Brophy-He
, & Banerjee, XXXXXXXXXXEven though the extant literature in this area
largely focuses on mother–child relationships, fathers likely play a specific
and critical role in socializing early regulation through regularly occu
ing
physically active play that both allows children to experience high arousal and
to manage the arousal through external (e.g., paternal response to toddler emo-
tion arousal) and internal regulatory processes (Flanders et al., 2010; Fletcher,
St. George, & Freeman, 2013; Paquette, 2004; Paquette, Ca
onneau, Dubeau,
Bigras, & Tremblay, XXXXXXXXXXThe cu
ent study tests relations between fathers’
egular active physical play with their children, children’s competencies at age
3 years, and the development of self-regulation at the close of the preschool
period among children from low-income families when comprehensive self-
egulation competencies are normatively consolidating and become critical
for successful learning readiness (Raver et al., 2011).
Relations Between Father–Child Play and Emotion Regulation
The hypotheses in the cu
ent study are largely framed by Paquette’s
(2004) Activation relationship theory, an alternative theory of father–child
attachment, which provides a useful framework in considering fathers’
Active Playtime With Fathers and Self-Regulation 107
contributions to young children’s emotion regulation. This theory includes
two dimensions of fathering that underlie the father–child relationship: (a)
stimulation wherein fathers encourage the child’s interaction with the out-
side world, and (b) discipline designed to provide children with limits that
will maintain their safety (Paquette, XXXXXXXXXXFathering activities, which pro-
vide stimulation within the boundaries of safe exploration, likely promote
children’s regulatory competencies by allowing them to experience higher
levels of emotional arousals in play while also managing arousal with
the father’s support in the play experience. Pursuant to this supposition,
Paquette XXXXXXXXXXhas demonstrated that father play with infants and tod-
dlers is typically characterized by regular patterns of increasing emotional
arousal followed by decreasing arousal. This peaks-and-valleys pattern in
emotional arousal is much different from patterns of mother–child play,
which tend to be characterized by steady and lower levels of emotional
arousal (Feldman, XXXXXXXXXXOther research, too, points toward father–infant
interactions as reflecting physical play (Dickson, Walker, & Fogel, 1997;
Feldman, 2003; Lamb, 1977; Yogman, XXXXXXXXXXRoggman XXXXXXXXXXdescribes
the importance of Paquette’s theory for a nuanced understanding of the
father–child relationship in which more physical play may be typical and
also emphasizes the importance of avoiding a stark contrast between par-
enting styles. Fathers of young children in general, and specifically in the
cu
ent sample, are likely to engage in a range of parenting behaviors,
especially those described as in the domains of physical, didactic, and
caregiving (Ca
era et al., 2004a, 2004b).
Some research demonstrates that fathers and mothers may be likely
to engage in similar parenting processes—for example, both have the
capacity to be sensitive and supportive with their children, and the sup-
portiveness itself is overall important for children’s outcomes (and asso-
ciations with cognitive outcomes, in particular, have been demonstrated),
egardless of parent gender (Martin, Ryan, & Brooks-Gunn, 2007; Ryan,
Martin, & Brooks-Gunn, 2006; Shannon, Tamis-LeMonda, London, &
Ca
era, XXXXXXXXXXThe extant literature overall suggests there may also
e role-specific behaviors that fathers and mothers likely coconstruct
within the family (Ca
era, Fitzgerald, Bradley, & Roggman, 2014).
Behavioral data with fathers have demonstrated important differences
in typical father–child versus mother–child interactions beginning
in infancy (Crawley & She
od, XXXXXXXXXXFathers, for example, tend to
exhibit increased physical interactions with their young children, often
characterized as rough-and-tumble play (Carson, Burks, & Parke, 1993).
Furthermore, within father–child relationships, the presence and quality
(e.g., positive arousal and dyadic synchrony) of active, father–child play
108 Me
ill-Palmer Quarterly
interactions, and not sensitivity per se, might be related to positive social
emotional outcomes in children (Feldman, 2003; MacDonald, XXXXXXXXXXIn
fact, fathers’ tendencies toward play with their young children that is
more active and physical, compared to mothers’ play that is often more
ve
al and didactic, has compelled researchers to consider the father as
the primary playmate, with an emphasis on how this role is as impor-
tant to early development as other parenting behaviors (Roggman, 2004;
Roggman, Boyce, Cook, Christiansen, & Jones, XXXXXXXXXXThus, different
mechanisms may account for the development of regulation in the con-
text of the father–child relationship than those most commonly studied in
mother–child relationships.
In the cu
ent study, we focus on children who are identified as
low-income based on their eligibility for Early Head Start services.
Critical inquiry of the development of self-regulation in early childhood
is a particularly important focus among this vulnerable group. Poor chil-
dren are at higher risk for problems in regulatory development, which
underscore long-term problems across areas of development, including
mental health (for a review, see Raver, XXXXXXXXXXFurthermore, literature
has long suggested that children in poverty are at higher risk for low
father involvement, often due to higher risk factors that poor men face,
including higher incarceration rates, lower employment rates, lower
marital rates combined with higher multipartner fertility rates, and fewer
fathering role models of their own (Black, Dubowitz, & Sta
, 1999;
Tamis-LeMonda, Shannon, Ca
era, & Lamb, XXXXXXXXXXYet, contemporary
esearch increasingly demonstrates that low-income fathers may be more
likely to be involved with their children and participate in a range of
caregiving activities beyond what was previously thought, especially in
the early years of children’s lives (Boller et al., 2006; Ca
era et al.,
2004a, 2004b).
We were especially interested in physically active play between fathers
and young children because of the potentially greater opportunities for
variation in the range of arousal. For example, play activities, such as chase
games or holding a laughing preschooler high