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Unstructured play in hospital settings: an internal locus of control rationale
Insights
Unstructured play helps children manage stress by fostering a sense of control. Adults can support children
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Pediatric Health
Background:
- Children's play is a key indicator of their coping mechanisms for stress.
- Play influences the interplay between emotional and cognitive states and environmental interactions.
- Play allows children to exert control over their experiences and outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the role of unstructured play in hospital settings.
- To provide a locus of control framework for understanding children's play.
- To identify adult roles that enhance children's internal perception of control.
Main Methods:
- This article presents a theoretical framework.
- It focuses on the rationale for unstructured play in pediatric environments.
- Implications for adult involvement are discussed.
Main Results:
- Unstructured play is particularly effective in enabling children to manage events, ideas, and relationships.
- It empowers children to gain a sense of agency and control.
- This control is crucial for coping with stressful environments like hospitals.
Conclusions:
- A locus of control perspective highlights the benefits of unstructured play for hospitalized children.
- Adults can facilitate children's play to enhance their internal perception of control.
- Supporting unstructured play is vital for pediatric well-being and stress management.
Abstract:
Play reveals how well or poorly children are coping with stresses. Simultaneously, play can influence the balance between affect and cognition as well as between children and their environments. Play is a process by which children can control contingencies and affect outcomes. It is unstructured play that particularly permits children to control events, ideas, and relationships. This article provides a locus of control rationale for unstructured play in hospital settings and presents implications for adults' roles in young children's play that enhance internal perception of control.