A Link Between Children’s Mental Health and Independent Play

“I began to look at research, which showed and documented that beginning as early as the 1960s until now, there has been a continuous, gradual but huge increase in anxiety, depression, and, most tragically, suicide among school-aged children and teens,” says play advocate and researcher Peter Gray, in a Washington Post interview. “Over that period of time, children have also been less and less free to do the things that make them happy and build the kind of character traits — of confidence, of internal locus of control, of agency — that allow them to feel like ‘the world is not too scary, because I can handle what life throws at me.’ This kind of attitude requires independent activity to develop, and we have been offering less and less of that activity.” In the article, Gray and his colleagues David Lancy and David Bjorkland discuss their recently published article in the Journal of Pediatrics. As for what to do? Bjorkland offers, “It’s hard to fight against the whole community, but there are little things — letting children handle some of their own difficulties. Don’t come to their rescue immediately. Make them an important part of a household. Kids want to help, and when they do, the task almost takes longer to achieve, and we’re often reluctant to really let them get involved. Let them help, encourage them to help, maybe even require them to help now and then. Let them do things that are slightly risky: ‘Get off that fence, you’re going to fall!’ — Well, how far are they going to fall? It’s not probably going to be anything that’s going to break a bone. Let them get out and explore.”

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