Taking part in family activities on a regular basis benefits the social and emotional health of young children, a new study finds.
And the more of these shared family routines, the better.
"Social-emotional health" is defined as being able to understand emotions, express empathy, have self-control and form good relationships with other children and adults.
Researchers looked at parent-provided data about 8,550 preschool kids in the United States to assess how often the children did things with their families, such as eating dinner, singing, reading books, playing and telling stories.
Fifty-seven percent of children participated in three or more regular family activities and more than 16 percent of the children had high social-emotional health.
The researchers also found that children who took part in five regular family activities were more than twice as likely to have high social-emotional health. Moreover, for each additional activity that parents and children do together, the child is nearly 50 percent more likely to have high social-emotional health.
Abstract in Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics: Family Routines and Social-Emotional School Readiness Among Preschool-Age Children
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