The Relationship Between Parental Play Beliefs, Preschoolers’ Home Experience, and Executive Functions: An Exploratory Study in Ethiopia

Abstract

Although research has highlighted the importance of home experience and especially of play in early brain development, the value of this factor for executive function (EF) development has not received the attention it deserves. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the link between parental play beliefs and preschoolers' play frequency at home on the one hand and their EF skills on the other. Additionally, other types of home activities were also assessed. A total of 102 preschoolers (45 girls; mean age = 62.08 months; SD = 7.66 months; range, 50-74 months) with their parents (mean age = 35.21 years; SD = 6.96 years) representing low to middle socioeconomic status (SES) families in Ethiopia participated in the study. Results revealed that children's home activities (frequency of breakfast at home, spending mealtime together with family, participation in peer play, participation in pretend play, and participation in arts and crafts) and parental play support were significantly positively correlated with their performance on EF tasks. Hierarchical regression analyses controlling for age and SES showed that parental play support and frequency of breakfast at home were medium-sized predictors (β = 0.36, p < 0.001 and β = 0.31, p = 0.001, respectively) explaining a significant level of variance in inhibitory control, while participation in arts and crafts at home was a significant predictor (β = 0.22, p = 0.03) of children's performance on a visual-spatial working memory (VSWM) task. In conclusion, parental play support and preschoolers' home activities are important factors linked with EF development in early childhood.

Parents’ Beliefs About Play and the Purpose of Preschool Education, Preschoolers’ Home Activity and Executive Functions

“…This means that children who frequently engage in pretend play at home and have parents who hold strong play support beliefs are likely to have better inhibitory control skills than their peers. The result that parental play support is a medium-sized predictor of children's inhibitory control skills after accounting for age and SES is consistent with the finding reported by Metaferia et al (2020) in an Ethiopian sample. Additionally, frequency of pretend play was also an important predictor for inhibitory control.…”

“…The purpose of the current study was to replicate and extend previous findings (Metaferia et al, 2020) which indicate a link between preschoolers' home experiences (parental play beliefs and preschoolers' home activities) and their EF skills, and was first conducted in Ethiopia. The current study examines Hungarian parents' beliefs about the purpose of preschool education and its relationship with their play beliefs.…”

“…Lin and Yawkey (2014) found that parental play beliefs demonstrated a significant, positive relationship with their children's social competence, even after controlling for parental background variables typically associated with children's social competence. Metaferia et al (2020) found that parental play support belief is a medium sized predictor of Ethiopian preschoolers' inhibitory control after accounting for preschoolers' age and family SES. To our knowledge, the present study is only the second study that has investigated the link between parents' play beliefs and preschoolers' EF, this time in a Central European country, Hungary.…”

“…The switching task used in the present study was similar to the task used by Metaferia et al (2020). A modified Go/No-Go task was used including 4 blocks, in each of which the rule was switched.…”

“…Based on the accumulating literature, we hypothesized that the frequency and duration of play activities and parents’ play support would be related to children’s EF skills. More specifically, based on the findings from our previous study ( Metaferia et al, 2020 ), we hypothesized that parental play support beliefs would be related to children’s inhibitory control skills, with strong positive play support beliefs associated with better inhibitory control skills. We also speculated based on this previous study that children’s frequency of participation in arts and crafts activities would be positively linked to their VSWM skills.…”