Home-based Physical Activity, Parent–child Interaction, and Play Participation: Associations with Emotional Regulation in Preschool Children

Emotion regulation develops rapidly during the preschool years and is shaped by children’s opportunities for movement, play and responsive interaction with caregivers. Yet research frequently conflates emotion regulation with behavioural compliance, executive function or broad psychosocial symptoms, obscuring the specific contribution of home-based physical activity. This critical narrative review integrates developmental, family-systems, play and physical-activity research to examine how movement opportunities, parent–child interaction and play participation may relate to regulation of emotional experience and expression in children approximately three to six years of age. Peer-reviewed empirical studies, intervention trials, longitudinal cohorts and relevant systematic reviews published by 25 August 2026 were critically appraised, with foundational work included where conceptually necessary. Physical activity and global self-regulation show generally small, heterogeneous associations, but experimental evidence for improvements in emotional regulation itself is less consistent than evidence for cognitive or behavioural regulation. Longitudinal play studies offer some temporal evidence, whereas observational dyadic research suggests that parental sensitivity, synchrony and repair of interactional mismatches may be central to how play experiences become regulatory opportunities. Family-based movement interventions can increase activity and parent–child co-participation, but seldom assess validated emotional outcomes. Divergent results may reflect differences in play type, timing, relational quality, developmental stage, measurement method and family circumstances. An integrated interpretation therefore treats activity exposure, play affordances and relational co-regulation as interacting but non-equivalent processes rather than interchangeable treatments. Future research requires factorial and longitudinal designs, context-sensitive multimethod assessment, greater inclusion of fathers and diverse caregivers, and direct tests of mechanisms and equity. The current evidence supports accessible, responsive and child-led opportunities for movement and play as developmentally reasonable practices, without establishing a specific causal prescription for improving emotion regulation.