Parent-child physical and pretense play: Links to children's social competence

Connections were examined between parent-child pretense and physical play and children's (median age = 5 years) social competence. Children's emotion knowledge and self-efficacy were assessed as possible mediators linking parent-child play behavior and children's social competence. The pattern of associations observed suggest that mutually responsive parent-child interaction during both pretense and physical play is associated with children's social competence. In addition, parent-child joint pretense play is linked to children's social competence. Children's emotion knowledge was positively associated with children's social competence, whereas children's self-efficacy was negatively associated with social competence. Tests for mediation revealed that parent-child mutual compliance during play accounted for unique variance in children's peer competence, whereas children's emotion knowledge did not account for a significant portion of the variance.