Playing with kids helps them to develop but there is more to it than just fun. Kids whose father took an active part in their upbringing may develop a higher degree of emotional intelligence to manage their behaviour later in life.

Why playtime with a father is important?

Single mother families are typical in Russia and Ukraine, where the divorce rate is at 60%, due to high economic instability and the culture of early marriages, impacting their chances to survive.

But a recent study shows that the presence of a father is very important from many points for kids, including their ability to control their emotions and behaviour later in life. Children whose fathers played with them were able to exercise better self-control later in life.

The research was conducted by the University of Cambridge and reviewed various data from the last 40 years relating to fathers playing with their kids in early years of their lives (0 to 3). The scientists wanted to see if there was anything special relating to fathers’ interactions with their children as compared to the ones of their mothers.

As researchers discovered, fathers usually engage in more physical types of play than mothers: Piggy-back rides, tickles, hide and seek or chasing each other around.

As the consequence, kids were able to manage their emotional feelings better later in life. Such skills are highly valuable when the kids enter their school years.

The ability of kids to exercises self-control improved if father-child play was part of their development.

It is also another wake-up call for families to structure time with kids in a way that fathers could also engage in playful interactions with their young children. Mothers often take kids to play groups but fathers rarely do it.It had been proven that early developmental years are critically important in how the child will feel about herself or himself later in life, but previously researchers mostly looked at mother-child interactions. The angle of looking at the results from the point of view of fathers’ involvement gives another perspective.

Results of 78 studies conducted in 1977-2017 were reviewed, to arrive to the conclusions.

Apparently, most fathers play with their kids at daily. For instance, if there are babies in the family, fathers pick their up and carry around, while for toddlers it could be chase games. Nearly all the studies demonstrated that the ability of kids to exercises self-control improved if father-child play was part of their development. Kids were better skilled in controlling aggression and had less fights with their schoolmates.

Scientists believe that the physical type of play requires kids to self-regulate more, by managing their strength and also control their emotions when the play occasionally becomes painful. Kids are able to learn how to respond in such situations and copy what the male parent did.

Researchers pointed out that mothers could also get involved in a more physical types of games, if the male parent isn’t present, to achieve similar results.

Read also:

• Bad father, good father: What do Russians think? 
• 7% of Russians believe fathers shouldn’t participate in kids’ life after divorce
• How many kids do Russian women want to have?
• Finding a good man for marriage: Things that are important for Russian women