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105 Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, January 2017, Vol. 63, No. 1, pp. 105–134. doi: 10.13110/ merrpalmquar 1982.63.1.0105 Copyright © 2017 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI 48201. Erika L. Bocknek, College of Education and Merrill-Palmer Skillman Institute; Carolyn Dayton, School of Social Work and Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute; Hasti A. Raveau and Patricia Richardson, Department of Psychology; and Holly E. Brophy-Herb 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 105-951936 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 correspondence to Erika L. Bocknek, College of Education, Wayne State University, 5425 Gullen Mall, Detroit, MI 48202. Phone: (313) 577-0902. Fax: (313) 664-2552. E-mail: Erika.
[email protected]. 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-Herb 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 current study (N = 415) addresses this gap in fatherhood research by using a secondary analysis of 106 Merrill-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 relations between fathers’ active play (measured at children’s 36-month birthday- related assessment) and developmental outcomes (cognitive–social and emotion regulation) 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, 2007). A 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 by parental support of children’s emerging regulation strategies (Bocknek, Brophy-Herb, & Banerjee, 2009). Even 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 occurring 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, Carbonneau, Dubeau, Bigras, & Tremblay, 2003). The current study tests relations between fathers’ regular 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- regulation 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 current 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, 2004). Fathering 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 (2004) has 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, 2003). Other research, too, points toward father–infant interactions as reflecting physical play (Dickson, Walker, & Fogel, 1997; Feldman, 2003; Lamb, 1977; Yogman, 1981). Roggman (2004) describes 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 current sample, are likely to engage in a range of parenting behaviors, especially those described as in the domains of physical, didactic, and caregiving (Cabrera 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), regardless of parent gender (Martin, Ryan, & Brooks-Gunn, 2007; Ryan, Martin, & Brooks-Gunn, 2006; Shannon, Tamis-LeMonda, London, & Cabrera, 2002). The extant literature overall suggests there may also be role-specific behaviors that fathers and mothers likely coconstruct within the family (Cabrera, Fitzgerald, Bradley, & Roggman, 2014). Behavioral data with fathers have demonstrated important differences in typical father–child versus mother–child interactions beginning in infancy (Crawley & Sherrod, 1984). Fathers, 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 Merrill-Palmer Quarterly interactions, and not sensitivity per se, might be related to positive social emotional outcomes in children (Feldman, 2003; MacDonald, 1987). In fact, fathers’ tendencies toward play with their young children that is more active and physical, compared to mothers’ play that is often more verbal 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, 2004). Thus, 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 current 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, 2004). Furthermore, 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, & Starr, 1999; Tamis-LeMonda, Shannon, Cabrera, & Lamb, 2004). Yet, contemporary research 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; Cabrera 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