The role of mother–child relationship between young children’s anxiety and social play

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to explore the moderating role of mother–child relationships (closeness and conflict) in the relations between children's anxiety and play behaviour in the sample of Turkish preschool children. Participants were N = 211 children (117 boys, M age = 64.08 months, SD = 12.26) attending preschool from suburban areas in Ankara. Mothers rated children’s anxiety and mother–child relationships, whereas teachers provided ratings of children’s social play. Among the results, children’s anxiety and mother’s conflict was positively correlated with reticence behaviour and negatively correlated with social play. Moreover, mother–child closeness significantly moderated these associations. The current findings suggest that mother – child relationships moderated the association between unsociability and social play in children (buffering effect). The interaction between anxiety and mother–child closeness could be beneficial for predicting unsociable children’s social play behaviour. Mothers can improve their relationship depending on unsociable children to provide nurturing social play behaviour. Limitations and future directions of the current study are discussed.