Family play and leisure activities: correlates of parents' and children's socio-emotional well-being

Abstract

Guided by systems theory, this mixed-methods study of 98 families examined parent- and child-reported play, exploration, and leisure activities in relation to family members' socio-emotional well-being. Parents and children completed surveys independently and interviews were conducted with a subset of families. Quantitative findings showed that child report of secure exploration with both parents, and mother report of leisure activities, were associated with some couple and parent–child well-being indicators and nearly all child well-being indicators. Father report of play and leisure activities was associated with more couple and parent–child well-being indicators than mother report and showed some differences in associations with child well-being indicators. Interview data provided examples of how families incorporate play and leisure into their busy lives and the perceived benefits and enjoyment derived from these activities. These findings emphasize the importance of family play and leisure involvement for parents' and children's well-being.

Keywords:

• parent–child play
• roughhousing
• family leisure
• school age
• parent socio-emotional well-being

Notes on contributors

Diana Coyl-Shepherd is an associate professor in the Department of Child Development, within the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at California State University, Chico. She teaches courses in adolescent development, global perspectives of children, family relations, and research methods and statistics. Her research interests include attachment relationships across the lifespan, couple and parent–child relations, and fathering.

Colleen Hanlon is an honor's student in Child Development at California State University, Chico. She contributed to data collection, data entry, analysis of the parent and child qualitative data, and to writing the manuscript. Her professional plans include graduate studies in human development and early childhood education. Her current research interests include emotion development in young children and attachment relationships across the lifespan.