Interrelationships Among Playful Parenting Style and Kindergarten Children’s Playfulness and Well-Being

Fung, Wing Kai and Chung, Kevin Kien Hoa (2026) Interrelationships Among Playful Parenting Style and Kindergarten Children’s Playfulness and Well-Being. In: BERA Conference 2026, 8 Sep 2026 - 10 Sep 2026 - 23 Mar 2026, University of Manchester. (Accepted for Publication)

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Abstract

Children’s playfulness indicates their qualities of play displayed across different contexts (Barnett, 1991; Lieberman, 1977), and emerging evidence has revealed its predictive role in early social-emotional, cognitive, and creativity development. Although the literature suggests links between playfulness and well-being among adolescents and adults (e.g., Parker et al., 2023; Proyer et al., 2018, 2021), research examining their relations in early childhood is very limited. Recent research has also explored the antecedents of children’s playfulness, like parent characteristics (e.g., parental play beliefs; Fung & Chung, 2024), family routine (e.g., household activities; Wei et al., 2025), or child characteristics (e.g., overexcitabilities; Fung & Chung, 2023). Grounded on the bioecological model (Bronfenbrenner & Ceci, 1994), highlighting the importance of parent-child interaction to child development, parenting styles (e.g., playful parenting) are potential factors that shape children’s playfulness. Existing research scarcely investigated the relations between parenting styles and child playfulness, and those examining how they collectively predict children’s well-being are even rarer. The present study aimed to fill these gaps by examining the interrelations between playful parenting style and playfulness, as well as their links to well-being, in a sample of Hong Kong kindergarten children. Participants were parents (87.3% mothers, 11.8% fathers) and teachers (N = 34) of 228 kindergarten children in Hong Kong (mean age = 5.01 years, 59.2% boys). Parents reported demographic information (i.e., child age, child gender, parent education, and household income), their playful parenting style, and their child’s playfulness, whereas teachers rated children’s emotional well-being (positive and negative) and character strengths (interpersonal, intellectual, temperance, and transcendence strengths) in the school context through questionnaires. Results from a path analytic model revealed that the indirect relations of playful parenting style with children’s positive emotional well-being and interpersonal, intellectual, temperance, and transcendence strengths, mediated through child playfulness, were positive and significant. However, the relation with negative emotional well-being was non-significant. The results highlighted playful parenting style and child playfulness as plausible protective factors associated with children’s well-being in the school context. Practically, promoting playful parenting practices at home may be a good way to support holistic early childhood development, fostering emotional resilience, social competence, and overall well-being.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Education and Social Sciences > School of Education
SWORD Depositor:	RISE Symplectic
Depositing User:	RISE Symplectic
Date Deposited:	30 Mar 2026 09:13
Last Modified:	30 Mar 2026 09:13
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/4879

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