UK primary school children in long-term 'creeping lockdown'
Research published this week indicates that primary school-aged children in Britain had lost the freedom to play outside unsupervised or to travel independently, even before the onset of the Covid pandemic.
According to The British Children’s Play Survey, children today are typically not allowed to play outside on their own or with friends until they are two years older than the age at which their parents were allowed the equivalent freedom when they were children: 11 compared to 9 years old.
The report, which the authors say is ‘the largest study of play in Britain’, says that these constraints on children’s adventurous play opportunities could negatively impact their long-term physical and mental health.
The survey, carried out in April 2020, focused on children’s play, independent mobility and adult attitudes towards the perceived risks children face when they play outside. It found that when parents and carers had more positive attitudes towards children’s risk-taking in play, they allowed their children more time to play outside independently, and at a younger age.
The report’s lead author Professor Helen Dodd of the University of Reading, said “we can clearly see that there is a trend to be protective and to provide less freedom for our children now than in previous generations.
“if children are getting less time to play outdoors in an adventurous way, this may have an impact on their mental health and overall wellbeing.”
“The concerns we have from this report are twofold. First, we are seeing children getting towards the end of their primary school years without having had enough opportunities to develop their ability to assess and manage risk independently. Second, if children are getting less time to play outdoors in an adventurous way, this may have an impact on their mental health and overall wellbeing.”
Commenting on the report in the Guardian, the researcher and writer on children’s play and child-friendly planning, Tim Gill, said: “Thanks to the pandemic, we all know what lockdown feels like. This groundbreaking study shows that British children have been subject to a gradual, creeping lockdown over at least a generation”.
The British Children’s Play Survey by Helen F. Dodd, Lily FitzGibbon, Brooke E. Watson and Rachel J. Nesbit, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading.
Published by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021, 18 (8), 4334.
The report is available free of charge here, under open access.