Adults grapple with contradictions relating to childhood outdoor playThe fact that children’s unsupervised outside play is declining is due, in part, to parental anxieties about children’s safety. This study examined what drives these anxieties and how this impacts children’s outdoor play.
Researchers analyzed data provided by sixty-four mature undergraduate students (most over age 35) who participated in an online activity focusing on children’s outdoor play as part of their studies. This activity included a map-making exercise where students created two maps: one illustrating where they were permitted to play as an eleven-year-old child and the other indicating where an eleven-year-old child they currently know is permitted to play. The students added written commentaries to their maps and shared their work with other students. They also engaged in an online discussion about their own and contemporary children’s outdoor play. Analysis of the data focused on the students’ recollections of their childhood outdoor play and their attitudes relating to contemporary childhood play. The analysis also examined the relationship between the adults’ reminiscences and their attitudes towards parenting and contemporary childhood play.
Results showed that the adult students perceived their own childhoods as a time of extensive mobility and freedom to play. Many recalled happy and carefree childhoods during which they were often unsupervised directly by their parents. The adult students – including those who grew up in urban environments – also indicated that they felt safe, connected, and had a sense of social belonging within their neighborhoods. The students’ recollections of their own spatial freedom during childhood differed sharply with the spatial restrictions they place on contemporary children. Almost all of the participants indicated that they specify strict curfew times for their children, have a clear preference for children to play close to home, and require them to be “constantly contactable by mobile phone.” They perceived the risks today to be too great to allow children more freedom.
This research highlights the difficulty many parents face in trying to juxtapose their belief in the importance of outdoor play for child development and their concerns about risks involved in unsupervised outdoor play. This research also supports the understanding that a cultural shift has occurred, which entails, among other things, a loss of the sense of community which underpins previous freedoms enjoyed by children.
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