Child’s Play: Examining the Association Between Time Spent Playing and Child Mental Health

Abstract

It is theorised that adventurous play offers learning opportunities that help to prevent mental health problems in children. In this study, data from two samples is used to examine associations between the time that children aged 5–11 years spent playing adventurously and their mental health. For comparison, time spent playing unadventurously and time spent playing outdoors are also examined. Study 1 includes a sample of 417 parents, Study 2 includes data from a nationally representative sample of 1919 parents. Small, significant associations between adventurous play and internalising problems, as well as positive affect during the first UK-wide Covid-19 lockdown, were found; children who spend more time playing adventurously had fewer internalising problems and more positive affect during the Covid-19 lockdown. Study 2 showed that these associations were stronger for children from lower income families than for children from higher income families. The results align with theoretical hypotheses about adventurous play.

Motivations and challenges for grandparent–grandchild outdoor play in early childhood: Perception of Canadian grandparents

“…In light of our findings and the benefits of outdoor play for children's and older persons' physical and psychological well-being (Dodd et al, 2022;Thompson Coon et al, 2011), several recommendations are proposed to facilitate grandparent-grandchild outdoor play. The first is to increase grandparents' knowledge about the benefits of outdoor play for children and for themselves, with regard to physical and mental health as well as the relational benefits.…”

“…During the past decades, researchers have highlighted the benefits of outdoor play in the physical and psychological development of children (Dodd et al, 2022), as well in older persons' physical and mental health (Thompson Coon et al, 2011). In this article, outdoor play is defined as "a form of play that takes place outdoors," with the outdoors referring to "any openair, wild, natural, or human-made space" (Lee et al, 2022).…”

“…Even though outdoor play has been shown to have many benefits for both children and older adults, it has greater barriers to participation than indoor play (Oliver et al, 2022). Outdoor play is associated with benefits to children's health and well‐being as well as with their cognitive, emotional, physiological, and social development (Milteer et al, 2012) and with decreasing anxiety (Dodd et al, 2022). Outdoor play is also considered a way to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviors in children (Gray et al, 2015).…”

Psychometric Properties of Positive and Negative Schedule Scale for Children-Short Form in Diverse American Adolescents

“…The second aim of the study was to investigate the measurement invariance of the PANAS-C-SF across gender and racial-ethnic groups. Despite the widespread use of the PANAS-C-SF in mental health research (e.g., Dodd et al, 2022), there has been a scarcity of literature examining its measurement invariance across diverse demographic groups. However, some evidence of gender measurement invariance for a two-factor model of the PANAS-C-SF has been found in two previous studies (Sanmartín et al, 2018; Wróbel et al, 2019).…”

Adventurous play in schools: The parent perspective

“…This learning is proposed to help children later in life when they are faced with situations that may provoke fear and uncertainty and help to prevent anxiety (Dodd & Lester, 2021). In support of this, recent research found that children who spent more time playing adventurously have fewer internalising symptoms (Dodd et al, 2022).…”