Howard J, McInnes K
Centre for Children and Young Peoples Emotional Health and Wellbeing, College of Human and Health Science, Swansea University, Swansea, UK.
Child Care Health Dev. 2013 Sep;39(5):737-42. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2214.2012.01405.x. Epub 2012 Jun 6.
As an important aspect of health and development, a number of policy and practice initiatives across education, health and social care are aimed at increasing children's emotional well-being. Links have been made between young children's emotional well-being and play although empirical evidence is limited. This paper demonstrates that when children perceive an activity as play, they show more signs of emotional well-being than when they perceive the same activity as not play.
One hundred and twenty-nine children aged between 3 and 5 years participated in the study. The cues children use to differentiate play and not play were used to create an activity session that was 'like play' and an activity session that was 'not like play'. The activity itself remained constant. Children were allocated to either of the activity session types alternately and emotional well-being was measured using the Leuvens Involvement Scale.
There was a significant difference in the level of emotional well-being displayed by children in the two activity session types. Children who undertook the 'like play' activity scored significantly higher than children who undertook the same activity but 'not like play'. Detailed observational analysis also showed increased behavioural indicators relating to emotional well-being among children participating in the 'like play' rather than 'not like play' activity session.
Children demonstrate increased emotional well-being when they perceive an activity as play rather than not play. Findings support the proposition that play can be seen as an observable behaviour but also as a mental state. As well as providing important evidence as to the value of play for enhancing children's emotional well-being, findings are discussed in relation to professional practice in children's services. The paper highlights the training needs of practitioners to enable them to understand children's views about play and use this information to create playful situations which maximize the developmental potential of play.
作为健康与发展的一个重要方面，教育、卫生和社会护理领域的多项政策及实践举措旨在提升儿童的情绪幸福感。尽管实证证据有限，但幼儿的情绪幸福感与玩耍之间已建立起联系。本文表明，当儿童将一项活动视为玩耍时，相较于他们将同一活动视为非玩耍时，他们会展现出更多情绪幸福感的迹象。
129名3至5岁的儿童参与了该研究。利用儿童用于区分玩耍和非玩耍的线索，创建了一个“类似玩耍”的活动环节和一个“不类似玩耍”的活动环节。活动本身保持不变。儿童被交替分配到这两种活动环节类型中，并使用鲁汶参与量表来测量情绪幸福感。
两种活动环节类型中的儿童所展现出的情绪幸福感水平存在显著差异。参与“类似玩耍”活动的儿童得分显著高于参与相同活动但为“不类似玩耍”的儿童。详细的观察分析还表明，参与“类似玩耍”而非“不类似玩耍”活动环节的儿童中，与情绪幸福感相关的行为指标有所增加。
当儿童将一项活动视为玩耍而非非玩耍时，他们会展现出更高的情绪幸福感。研究结果支持了这样一种观点，即玩耍既可以被视为一种可观察到的行为，也可以被视为一种心理状态。这些发现不仅为玩耍对提升儿童情绪幸福感的价值提供了重要证据，还结合儿童服务领域的专业实践进行了讨论。本文强调了从业者的培训需求，以使他们能够理解儿童对玩耍的看法，并利用这些信息创造充满趣味的情境，从而最大限度地发挥玩耍的发展潜力。
