Adventurous play in schools: the parent perspective

Nesbit, R. J., Harvey, K. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6819-0934, Parveen, S. and Dodd, H. F. (2023) Adventurous play in schools: the parent perspective. Children & Society, 37 (6). pp. 2102-2122. ISSN 1099-0860 doi: 10.1111/chso.12747

Abstract/Summary

Adventurous play (play that is exciting and thrilling, where children take age-appropriate risks, for example climbing trees and jumping from rocks) is increasingly being recognised as beneficial for child health and development. Despite this, children’s opportunities for and engagement in this type of play have declined in recent decades. Breaktimes in schools may provide an ideal opportunity to provide adventurous play opportunities for all children. Recent work has identified myriad factors that help and hinder schools in offering adventurous play opportunities, but parent perspectives have largely been absent. Through one-to-one semi-structured qualitative interviews, this study aims to capture parents’ perspectives on adventurous play happening in schools and what they perceive as the key barriers to and facilitators of adventurous play in schools. The findings were analysed using reflective thematic analysis. Five themes were identified: Needs, Schools as Gatekeepers, Risks and Benefits, Societal Constraints and Individual Differences. Findings are discussed with reference to parental support for adventurous play, as well as parent and school level needs that should be addressed if barriers that may hinder adventurous play opportunities in school are to be overcome.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/111768
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology
Publisher	Wiley
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