The relationship between father-child rough and tumble play and motor development: an exploratory study

The increase of paternal care in modern western society has positioned researchers to question the impact this has had on child outcome. Rough-and-Tumble Play (RTP) has been identified as a somewhat unique contribution of fatherhood and it has thus far been shown to have positive associations with children’s healthy development; yet it remains relatively understudied. This study explores the associations between father-child RTP (frequency and quality) and Motor Development (fine and gross) in a sample of 29 (16 female) 17-25 (M=20, SD=2.01) month olds and their biological fathers (M=34.11 years, SD= 4.8, range=24-44). Results demonstrated that when controlling for father age and child gender, RTP-Quality explained 15.7% of the variance in Gross Motor development score. Whilst the nature of the current study was cross-sectional and causality cannot be inferred, the results provide further evidence of the positive association of RTP and motor skills. The implications of Motor Skill influence on social-emotional development are discussed.