Father involvement and peer play competence in preschoolers: The moderating effect of the child's difficult temperament

Abstract

This article focuses on the association between the relative involvement of the father with preschool children in two-parent families, individual characteristics of children (age, gender, and difficult temperament) and the children's peer play competence. Relative involvement of the father was assessed using The Parental Involvement: Care and Socialization Questionnaire composed of five subscales: Direct Care, Indirect Care, Teaching/Discipline, Play and Leisure Outdoors. Interactive peer play competence was assessed using the Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale (PIPPS), with three subscales: Play Interaction, Play Disruption and Play Disconnection. Parental assessment of the child's temperament was made using the preschool version of the Infant Characteristics Questionnaire's (ICQ) subscale of Difficult Temperament. Multiple regression ordinary least squares (OLS) models showed that boys and children with difficult temperament tend to show more play disruption and less play interaction, and also that difficult temperament was a moderator of the association between the relative father involvement in Direct Care, Play and Teaching/Discipline activities and individual differences in peer play Disruption and Interaction. Higher levels of relative father involvement in Direct Care and Play with temperamentally difficult children were associated with more disruptive play with peers, and higher levels of relative father involvement in Teaching/Discipline with difficult children was associated with more play Interaction. The discussion elaborates on the differential styles of Interaction by fathers and mothers with temperamentally difficult children.