Effects of maternal perinatal stress and child temperament on mother-child peek-a-boo play

BACKGROUND: Caregiver-child play is an important context for early social interactions, yet little is known about how maternal perinatal stress and child temperament relate to maternal play behaviour within structured game routines. Peek-a-boo provides a predictable but flexible play routine in which structural and temporal characteristics of maternal play behaviours can be observed. This study examined whether maternal perinatal stress and child temperament at 12 months were associated with maternal peek-a-boo behaviour at 15 months. METHODS: Seventy-one mother-child dyads participated in the study. Maternal perceived stress was assessed at eight time points across the perinatal period, while child temperament was evaluated at 12 months of child age. Maternal peek-a-boo behaviour was observed at 15 months and operationalised through play duration, frequency of game rounds, and the frequency and duration of optional game phases (i.e. variability in game structure). RESULTS: Longer play duration was associated with higher average perinatal stress and lower child Orienting/Regulatory Capacity. Maternal stress showed a trend-level positive association with the duration of optional game phases. Primiparous mothers also spent more time in optional game phases than multiparous mothers. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that individual differences in maternal perinatal stress, child temperament at 12 months, and parity may be reflected in how mothers organise a familiar peek-a-boo routine. Although preliminary, the results highlight the value of examining the fine-grained structure of early play interactions using observational methods.