The Impact of Family Bonding Activity Type and Time on Young Children's Social–Emotional Development

ABSTRACT Social–emotional development is a vital component of early child development, laying a critical foundation for a child's overall well‐being and success in school and community settings. This study examines the relationship between the ‘type and time of family bonding activity’ and ‘children's social‐emotional development’ using the 2022 National Survey of Children's Health data. Using a sample of children between 3 and 5 years of age ( M = 4, 51.1% male, 64.8% non‐Hispanic White), study results showed that ‘singing or telling stories’ (female: β = 0.112, p < 0.001; male: β = 0.127, p < 0.001) and ‘reading to children’ (female: β = 0.107, p < 0.001; male: β = 0.159, p < 0.001) were positively related to both female and male children's social–emotional development, while ‘having meals together’ only showed a positive relationship with male children's social–emotional development ( β = 0.058, p = 0.006). Findings suggest that spending more days doing family bonding activities can be a practical, relatively easy, cost‐effective way to implement at home and promote young children's social–emotional development.