Play, Well-being, and Psychopathology
J. Fortin
Excerpt from Cultivating Emotional Vulnerability through Play: Perceptions of Early Childhood Educators in the United States, Portugal, and China thesis for EMJMD Erasmus Mundus Thesis.
For meaningful play to occur, Vygotsky (1978) found that there must be an emotional response attached to the experience. Without this link, experiences are merely activities, not play. Feelings of connection and belonging are fostered by social interactions typical in joint play. Foundational for happiness and good mental health, the joy of socializing through play facilitates emotional development (Panksepp, 2005; Whitebread et al., 2017), well-being (Marshall et al., 2015), and the formation of healthy relationships and social networks (Chernyshenko et al., 2018; Vygotsky, 1978). Indeed, positive adjustment and well-being throughout life has been linked with children’s opportunities to play (Singer, 2006; Howard & McInnes, 2012). While play supports positive social and emotional development, a lack of play has contrarily been linked with adverse social and emotional effects (Gray, 2011). By considering the adverse effects of limited play on children’s well-being and mental health, the therapeutic and healing benefits of play are considered with more urgency.
A measured decline in children’s play opportunities has been linked with a rise in psychopathology, including feelings of anxiety, depression, and narcissism among children in the United States (Gray, 2011; Twenge et al., 2010). Such adverse effects outline humans psychological and biological need for play more strongly than previous decades of research promoting it (Rentzou et al., 2018; International Play Association [IPA], 2014). Connecting this continuous decline of children's play opportunities with an increase in psychopathology, Gray (2011) outlined the drastic and continuous decline of children's access and opportunities to play in the United States between 1981 and 1997.
Among a large, representative group of parents in the United States, children were found to play less in 1997 and had less free time for self-chosen activities (Gray, 2011, citing Hofferth & Sanberg, 2001). This decrease in freely chosen activities and play was linked to a general rise in psychopathology (Gray, 2011, citing Twenge et al., 2010). From the 1950s, young people in the United States were found to experience increased depression and anxiety along with other psychological disorder scores which have “increased continually and dramatically” (Gray, 2011 p. 448, citing Twenge et al. 2010). Additional factors found to influence the rise of psychopathology include social isolation and reduced sense of community, both of which were exacerbated in the recent pandemic. As is well documented, greater social isolation is extensively linked with increased levels of depression, decreased life satisfaction, and lower levels of psychological well-being (Clair et al., 2021; Cacioppo and Cacioppo, 2014).
Although correlation does not prove causation, Gray (2011) argued that play has primarily been studied in relation to its benefits on children's development, while the inverse has not been studied enough. Arguing that if the "rise in anxiety and depression are linked to a decline in sense of personal control, then play would seem to be the perfect remedy" (Gray, 2011, p. 454). By considering both the benefits of play and detriment it’s lack may infer, advocating for children’s cross-cultural access to play opportunities, particularly of social nature, is vital.
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