Measurement, structural, and functional invariance of parent-child play quality coding across multiple games and parent gender

Interpersonal Neural Synchrony During Father–Child Problem Solving: An fNIRS Hyperscanning Study

“…The available behavioral data suggest that fathers’ and mothers’ interactional behavior toward their children should in principle not substantially differ. For example, father– and mother–child dyads appear to show similar levels of interpersonal behavioral synchrony during their interactions (de Mendonça, Bussab, & Kärtner, 2019 ; Feldman, 2003 ), and father– and mother–child interaction quality seems to be comparable more generally (e.g., Piskernik & Ruiz, 2020 ). These results suggest that father–child dyads might show comparable associations of INS to state‐like factors, such as behavioral reciprocity, as mother–child dyads.…”

Parent–child play and parent–child relationship: Are fathers special?

“…We used a 5-point Likert scale to describe Play Quality ranging from 1 ( distant and chaotic play interaction with parent and child following different aims ) to 5 ( togetherness and joy between parent and the child, displaying mutual behavioral adjustment and dialog-like play structures with concurring goals ). This scale is a result of a test construction (Piskernik & Ruiz, 2018) that generalized the scores of three 5-point Likert scales: (a) Familiarity assesses how well a parent provides play activity according to expectations of how the child will react and feel. The subscale also reflects parent and child feelings of togetherness and joy, and therefore focusses on how the child integrates the parent’s actions during play, (b) Calibration considers the coordination of the play situation and describes how well the parent’s and child’s activities are related to each other; how well the parent participates in the play script.…”

“…good ICCs of .66 for Familiarity, .80 for Calibration, and .70 for Adjustment (for more details see Ahnert et al, 2017). The scores of these scales were later transformed into scores of the Play Quality scale, which not only economically condensed the three subscales and thus avoided inflations of the results, but also demonstrated structural and functional measurement invariance for both the physical as well as the cognitive games across parent gender (see Piskernik & Ruiz, 2018).…”

“…Father–child and mother–child play was separately instructed and videotaped in 80 two-parent families with children aged 18–58 months (44 boys). We offered a physical and a cognitive game, and analyzed each parent–child dyad after rating 10 characteristic parental play behaviors ( Encouraging , Surprising , Teasing , Explaining , Confirming , Instructing , Restricting , Lampooning , Sound-Imitating , and Caressing ) and three subscales of the Play Quality scale (Piskernik & Ruiz, 2018). External observers also assessed father– and mother–child relationships with the Attachment-Q Sort (Waters, 1995).…”