Interrelationships among parental play belief, household playfulness, school play behaviors, and social competence of kindergarten children

Abstract

This study examined the interrelationships among parental play belief, household playfulness, kindergarten play behaviors, and social competence in a sample of Hong Kong Chinese children. Participants were teachers and parents of 140 children (52.1% boys, mean age = 4.35). Parents reported their parental play belief and their child’s playfulness through a questionnaire, while teachers reported children’s kindergarten play behaviors and social competence. Multiple regressions and path analytic model revealed that children’s kindergarten social play, rough play, and reticent behaviors were correlates of their social competence; and that children’s social spontaneity, social play, and reticent behaviors act as potential mediators underlying the relationship between parental play belief and social competence. These findings suggest that parents holding positive play belief may promote their child’s social competence by shaping children’s household playfulness and kindergarten play behaviors. They also highlight the utility of promoting parental play belief, children’s social spontaneity, and kindergarten social play.

Keywords:

• Parental play belief
• playfulness
• play behaviors
• social competence
• kindergarten children

Ethics statement

Approval was obtained from the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Education University of Hong Kong (ref: 2019-2020-0391). All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the institution’s ethical standards and the 1964 Helsinki Declaration.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data is not available due to ethical restrictions.

Compliance with ethical standards

This manuscript was prepared in accordance with the ethical standards of the American Psychological Association.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Centre for Child and Family Science of the Education University of Hong Kong.