Lack of Free Play Among Children is Causing Harm, Say Experts in American Journal of Play

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.bc.edu/offices/pubaf/news/2011_jun-aug/petergray_freeplay08252011.html

Lack of Free Play Among Children is Causing Harm, Say Experts in American Journal of Play

CHESTNUT HILL, MA (8-25-11) -- Hovering helicopter parents who restrict their kids’ unstructured play may actually harm, rather than help, children according to the latest issue of the http://www.journalofplay.org/">American Journal of Play, a scholarly journal which has gathered a distinguished group of experts to probe the near-extinction of free play and its effects on children and society.

“Remarkably, over the last 50 years, opportunities for children to play freely have declined continuously and dramatically in the United States and other developed nations; and that decline continues, with serious negative consequences for children’s physical, mental, and social development,” said Guest Editor Peter Gray, a research professor of psychology at Boston College. “This special issue of the American Journal of Play reviews the evidence for the crucial roles of play in children’s development and proposes ways we may create a world in which play—especially free outdoor play with other children—is once again a normative part of childhood.”

Included in this issue are two articles by Gray, one presenting research that shows a correlation between the decline of free play and the rise of depression, suicide and narcissism in children and teens, and the other highlighting the importance of age-mixed play.

http://www.journalofplay.org/sites/www.journalofplay.org/files/pdf-articles/3-4-article-gray-decline-of-play.pdf">“The Decline of Play and the Rise of Psychopathology in Children and Adults”: Gray presents a review of research showing a correlation between the decline of free play in developed nations and the rise of depression, suicide, feelings of helplessness, and narcissism in children, teens, and young adults.

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[joeybee12]

1. Interesting...people my age were set free in the neighborhood most times...

You'd never see that happen today.

[drm604]

3. I see it in the neighborhoods in my town all the time.

Children run around in groups shrieking and laughing without any adult imposed structure.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. I had to be home for Supper

I couldn't ride my bicycle outside of a certain area.

When I read an old copy of http://www.amazon.com/Where-Did-Out-What-Nothing/dp/0938530232">Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing. my parents had, it all sounded familiar.

[n2doc]

5. Depends on the place

My neighborhood still has that. The bigger problem is that schools load kids down with tons of homework (even in 2-3 grade) and then Parents load them down with more activities, like organized sports, clubs, etc. But I know people who do try to keep things sane and allow their kids to roam and play on their own.

[cyberpj]

6. I know. "Go outside and play. And be home when the streetlights come on!"

But our neighborhood all knew each other and watched out for each other and therefore we had a neighborhood of parents keeping an eye on us.

If anyone else disciplined one of many of today's kids their parents would probably sue.

It's a different world.

[Lugnut]

15. That sounds like my neighborhood.

I had boundaries for riding my bike but that was about it. As long as I could hear when my dad whistled I was good to go. Daddy's whistle could wake the dead so I had a lot of room to run. As I got older I mastered Daddy's whistle. My kids grew up with the same kind of boundaries I had.

[enough]

9. I lived in a rural area and we were basically free to go as far as we were able to go

on foot or bicycle, or on any sort of raft we could create. We had a whole world to ourselves, expanding as we got older. Now I look back at that and it looks like some sort of mythical golden age.

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. Of course not. There has been a theft of common ground areas going

on every since the property rights organizations took over in the eighties.

[drm604]

2. This seems like common sense to me.

Free unstructured playing was a big part of my childhood. It would have been upsetting to me to have it removed.

[HuckleB]

7. I very much agree that the loss of free play time is unhealthy.

I have been a proponent of the Free-Range Kids movement for some time.

Still, correlation is not causation.

[kestrel91316]

8. My parents used to let my sister and I roam free all weekend long (except for mealtimes and bedtime)

pretty much all year unless the weather was bad, and in summer it was like 24/7 weekends. VERY unstructured. Never even heard of such a thing as a "play date".

We played outside, weather permitting, and when it didn't, we could be found at friends' houses or they at ours, usually in the basement or our own bedroom, inventing all sorts of fun.

Mud pies, forts in the woods, tree houses (made with no parental involvement), treks through the woods to distant adventures, hide-and-seek even after dark. And I am talking during grade school.

[mopinko]

11. the thing that i thought free play gave me was

freedom from the control of a family structure that was, well, um, not always constructive. so i can see where that leads => better outcomes.

but i do also think that the human animal, like all animals, has a built in "dial" that goes a little like this- lots of kids>risks ok, 1 or 2 kids>risks less acceptable. the outcomes are bound to be different, but not sure you can boil that down to good/bad.

[HuckleB]

12. I do think that is a part of the equation.

However, media promotion of every crime that occurs has led many to believe that crime is on the rise and their kids are at higher risk than in the past, when the opposite is true. A whole industry has also been built up by playing on the fears promoted by the media. Safety products are big business. Now, bike helmets and car seats are worthy safety products, but many others may not provide anything but a placebo effect on the parents. In addition, this whole fear component can lead to a mob mentality, where anyone who wants to give their kid some freedom to roam is at risk for being looked down upon, and possibly arrested and brought into court.

There are so many layers to what has happened to free play, and it's not just in the US.

Sorry to go on and on...

[mopinko]

14. i agree with you.

i had a very pleasant conversation with a neighborhood kid recently. i live 2 houses away from him. he is 7. we chatted about a lot of things, including how i knew the now adult kids it the apartment above him when they were kids.
when i asked him his name, he told me he had to see if it was ok to tell me. :crazy: i'm a stranger, see.

[pansypoo53219]

13. i was thinking back, and

when my brother + i and sometimes w/ my 2 cousins, were allowed to play in the basement unsupervised and play w/ the workbench stuff. saws, sure, hammers, chisels, the ANVIL. various liquids. nails, screws. copper wire.

[LeftishBrit]

16. I agree that this is an undesirable aspect of our times

I am a bit sceptical about the alleged links with depression, suicide, narcissism (hard to measure in children anyway) and feelings of helplessness. Correlation does not mean cause, and there are many other factors that could be involved: e.g. economic decline; longer period of social and economic dependence combined with accelerated physical maturity; etc. Also, it is not clear that all these things really have increased. Depression is more readily *diagnosed* especially in young people (it used to be thought wrongly that children couldn't have it), but may not really have increased that much; and while suicide rates have gone up in the USA, they have actually gone down in the UK.

It is, however, undoubtedly true that lack of free outdoor play has contributed to greater obesity and lower physical fitness; and, though this is harder to prove, I suspect that it also has negative effects on imagination and creativity, and that the child who is never allowed to take small risks may end up either exaggeratedly fearful or totally reckless.

[CanSocDem]

17. Look a little closer and....

...you'll see that it is less about "depression" than it is about becoming a well adjusted adult. The authors aren't talking about the current state of the world, rather a "large sample" of parents reporting on their kid's activities in 1981, and again in 1997. Their conclusions are based on the differences between those 2 years.

I am old enough to have witnessed it all first-hand and educated enough to notice 'correlating' social and political influences. Even you get it when you write: "...I suspect that it also has negative effects on imagination and creativity, and that the child who is never allowed to take small risks may end up either exaggeratedly fearful or totally reckless."

Welcome to the USA!!

Luckily we can still do things to save the planet. Encouraging and trusting children to find their own voices in their "play". Creating safe communities and environments that draw children away from their TV's and video games. Take the competition out of "play". Etc...


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