Exploring children’s perceptions of play using visual methodologies

Abstract

Objective: A great deal of scholarly work has examined the way that physical, social and cultural environments relate to children's health behaviour, particularly with respect to diet and exercise. While this work is critical, little research attempts to incorporate the views and perspectives of children themselves using visual methodologies. Specifically, we examine: (1) how children conceptualize play;(2) what aspects of play are important to children; and (3) the role that play assumes in guiding children's activity patterns. Setting: Elementary school classrooms from third and fifth grade were sampled in a low-income, largely Latino/a part of southwest Denver, United States of America (USA), in late spring of 2010. Design: A qualitative study in which each child participated in a 'photo voice' survey and an in-class focus group. Method: The authors employed visual methodologies to explore how children conceptualized play. Photo voice surveys were administered in English and Spanish. After analysis of the photo voice surveys, children were invited to discuss their photos and drawings in small focus groups conducted in the classroom. All children who completed the survey participated in the focus groups. Results: Children in this study group conceptualized play largely in unstructured form. Family and school were important themes to emerge from the analysis of the data. Conclusion: Visual methods can clarify social-cultural dimensions of interactions between people and places, which can serve to inform research on health behaviours from children's perspectives. Such methodologies are particularly important for research that focuses on the construction of physical environments for children.

Children’s Perceptions of Their Play: Scale Development and Validation

“…Children also thought about their play in terms of opportunities to interact with friends and family. These findings are consistent with those of Anthamatten et al [43], who found that family played a critical role in play for the third and fifth grade children they interviewed. Research has clearly shown that as children mature through middle childhood and into adolescence, there is a shift toward a preference for spending more time with friends and less time with family members [89].…”

“…Research has clearly shown that as children mature through middle childhood and into adolescence, there is a shift toward a preference for spending more time with friends and less time with family members [89]. While the children in this study did indicate the importance of friends in thinking about play (in contrast to the Anthamatten et al [43] study with children of the same age), they had not yet shown the desire to spend less time with family. The age of the children in the sample was relatively young (8 to 10 years) in relation to these observed developmental changes, and they were at the age where parents still played a central role in their lives.…”

“…Research has shown that the increased importance of peers and the quest for independence from parents primarily occur at later ages [89,90]. The findings of the Anthamatten et al [43] study showed the importance of family but not friends to the children they interviewed: the sample sizes in each grade (third and fifth) were relatively small ( = 9 and = 6, resp.) and the children were asked to define play in relation to activities that transpired in their classrooms.…”

“…There have been some efforts to have children self-define a situation as play [30,32,43,44]. In one such study [44], 6-12-year-old children discussed free play experiences in focus groups of five children each.…”

“…Researchers commented on the limitations of this method by noting that there were a number of the children who seemed "nervous and hesitant to contribute" [44, page 419] and that "the views and opinions of the most outspoken or confident children may have dominated the focus group discussions and some children may have been influenced by the opinions expressed by other children in the group" [44, page 419]. The use of focus groups has been used in other studies attempting to have children define play [32,43] and is therefore subject to the same concerns.…”