Laughter plays a unique role in building a secure father-child relationship, new research suggests

A recent study published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology suggests that mothers and fathers are equally skilled at making their preschool children laugh using similar playful strategies. However, this shared laughter tends to play a more central role in building a secure emotional bond between fathers and their children. These findings provide evidence that joyful interactions are a meaningful part of family dynamics, though they might function differently for each parent.

Attachment theory explores how children form emotional bonds with their primary caregivers to feel safe and protected. A secure attachment provides a firm foundation that allows young children to confidently explore the world and manage their emotions. Traditionally, scientists focus heavily on how parents respond to a child in distress, such as when an infant cries or feels frightened.

Because of this traditional focus on negative emotions, the scientific community knows much less about how positive moments shape family relationships. Laughter is a powerful social tool that promotes closeness, reinforces positive feelings between two people, and activates reward centers in the brain.

“The motivation for this study came from two sources,” said study author Jean-Francois Bureau, a professor at the University of Ottawa and director of The Child and Adult Relationships and Environments Lab.

“First, most parenting interventions focus primarily on reducing ‘bad’ behaviors. While this is important, it should not be the ultimate goal of parenting support. Being a good parent is not simply about avoiding harmful behaviors; it is also about building a positive relationship with one’s child and enjoying time together. We therefore wanted to explore this more positive dimension of parenting.”

Free daily newsletter

“Second, there is an ongoing debate about mothers and fathers and their respective roles in parenting. Some people assume that playful activities, such as joking, rough-and-tumble play, or making children laugh,are primarily the domain of fathers. Our study aimed to examine whether this assumption is actually supported by evidence.”

The scientists chose to study preschool children because this is a developmental period when kids become more independent and communicative. During these years, fathers typically become more involved in daily routines and dedicate a large portion of their parenting time to active play. This makes the preschool window an ideal time to observe how amusing interactions influence family bonds and compare the approaches of both parents.

To explore these positive interactions, the researchers recruited a sample of 144 English and French speaking families with children between the ages of three and five. Each family included a mother, a father, and their preschooler. The families visited a laboratory on two separate occasions spaced about six months apart, allowing the child to interact individually with each parent.

During these visits, scientists observed the pairs in a room with no toys and asked the parent to make their child laugh for two minutes. Afterward, they introduced toys and conducted a standard separation and reunion procedure. This procedure involves the parent briefly leaving the room and returning, which helps scientists measure attachment security based on how the child reacts.

To analyze the interactions, the research team developed a new observational tool to track both the parents’ strategies and the children’s subsequent laughter. They reviewed past literature and pilot videos to identify a wide range of specific entertaining actions adapted for the preschool age group. They then closely recorded whether behaviors were physical, such as tickling, or visual and auditory, such as making funny faces and using peculiar voices.

The data suggests that mothers and fathers tend to rely on very similar techniques, which the researchers grouped into two main categories. The first category involved physical touch and anticipation, such as chasing, tickling, and playfully lifting the child. The second category involved movement and sound, which included dancing, making silly faces, singing, and using nonsense words.

Both parents used these techniques with equal success, effectively keeping their kids entertained. This means children laughed just as much with their mothers as they did with their fathers across the short observation period. While the success rates were highly similar, the specific ways parents combined these strategies tended to differ slightly based on their parenting styles.

Mothers often incorporated nursery rhymes and songs alongside specific body movements and facial expressions. Fathers frequently tried to surprise their children or playfully break social rules, perhaps by making sudden funny noises or calling objects by the wrong names. This approach tends to playfully destabilize the child within a safe environment.

The scientists found that for fathers, using both physical touch and silly movements successfully generated frequent child laughter. This laughter was then positively associated with a stronger sense of attachment security between the child and the father, suggesting a unique relational benefit.

For mothers, the physical touch strategies also successfully made the children laugh. Yet, the amount the child laughed was not directly linked to the child’s overall attachment security with the mother. Instead, the mother’s use of movements and sounds, such as singing comforting nursery rhymes, was directly associated with higher attachment security. These familiar songs create a predictable routine that might foster feelings of safety even if it does not result in explosive, disruptive laughter.

“One of the main findings of our study is that mothers and fathers tend to use very similar techniques to make their children laugh, most commonly tickling and chasing, and these techniques are equally successful for both parents,” Bureau told PsyPost.

“However, we also found that making children laugh appears to be particularly associated with the quality of the relationship in father–child dyads. In other words, while mothers and fathers are equally capable of making their children laugh, these playful interactions may play a somewhat more central role in the father–child relationship.”

Ultimately, these observations help dispel a common cultural stereotype that fathers are the primary source of fun while mothers take on a strictly serious caregiving role. The data shows that mothers are just as playful and capable of creating joyful, entertaining interactions with their children.

Still, the scientists acknowledge some limitations in their work that require further exploration. The families in the study were generally highly educated and from a low socioeconomic risk background, which means the results might not apply to populations with different life circumstances. Additionally, cultural norms around play and humor vary widely, so parents from different cultural backgrounds might use entirely different strategies to amuse their children.

The laboratory setting itself also presents a limitation because asking parents to make their child laugh on command without toys is an artificial scenario. It may not perfectly reflect the natural ways parents and children interact in their daily routines. In the future, researchers hope to observe how families spontaneously create humorous and playful moments in their own homes.

Because the study assessed the families at a single point in their lives, it cannot prove that laughing directly causes a more secure relationship. Future research will need to follow families over longer periods to see exactly how these joyful moments influence emotional development as children grow. Understanding these dynamics could eventually highlight the broad developmental benefits of everyday playfulness in raising confident, healthy children.

“There are still very few studies examining children’s humor and how parents contribute to it,” Bureau said. “Our study should therefore be seen as an initial step that raises new questions for future research. For example, an important next step would be to explore how parents spontaneously create playful and humorous interactions with their children in everyday life at home.”

“More broadly, in an era marked by increasing screen time for both children and parents, it is especially important to highlight the value of play and shared laughter. These playful moments may seem simple, but they can contribute meaningfully to the quality of the parent–child relationship and to children’s positive developmental outcomes.”

The study, “How fathers and mothers make their children laugh: Associations with the security of parent-child attachment relationships,” was authored by Sabrina Schmiedel, Jean-François Bureau, Jessica Turgeon, Audrey-Ann Deneault, and Ariane J. Gauthier.