Adventurous play as a mechanism for reducing risk for childhood anxiety: a conceptual model

• In Event: Children's outdoor, risky play: potential benefits and factors affecting engagement

Abstract

It is well-established that trajectories to anxiety disorders begin early in life (Caspi, Elder, & Bem, 1988). Half of all anxiety disorders begin before the age of 11 and elevated anxiety symptoms early in life predict subsequent anxiety disorders (Kessler et al., 2005; Hudson & Dodd, 2012). Developmental models of anxiety psychopathology (e.g. Manassis & Bradley, 1994; Vasey & Dadds, 2001) have stimulated extensive research directed at understanding and delineating pathways of risk and resilience for anxiety. Childhood anxiety is associated with a range of cognitive and behavioral factors including child temperament, specifically behavioural inhibition (Chronis-Tuscano, Degnan, Pine, Perez-Edgar, Henderson, Diaz, et al., 2009; Hudson & Dodd, 2012; Lahat, Hong, & Fox, 2011), avoidance (Craske, 2003); over-involved parenting (Hudson, Dodd, Lyneham, & Bovopoulous, 2011; McLeod, Wood, & Weisz, 2007), intolerance of uncertainty (Osmanağaoğlu et al., 2018), and cognitive biases such as interpretation bias and coping cognitions (Stuijfzand, Creswell, Field, Pearcey, & Dodd, 2017; Dodd, Stuijfzand, Morris, & Hudson, 2015; Field & Lester, 2010). To decrease children’s risk for developing high levels of anxiety or an anxiety disorder, prevention and early intervention programs have been designed to target these factors (e.g. Kennedy, Rapee, & Edwards, 2009; Chronis-Tuscano, Rubin, O'Brien, Coplan, Thomas, Dougherty, et al., 2015).

This talk will outline a new conceptual model (see Figure 1) that hypothesises that risky play can also target these cognitive and behavioural factors and, as a result, decrease children’s risk for anxiety. Risky play is defined as exciting, thrilling play where the child experiences a level of fear and is able to take age appropriate risks. We propose that the positive, thrilling, playful emotions associated with child-led adventurous play facilitates exposure to fear-provoking situations and, in doing so, provides opportunities for children to learn about physiological arousal, uncertainty and coping. We hypothesise that these learning opportunities will, over time, reduce children’s risk for elevated anxiety by increasing children’s expectations and ability to cope with anxiety, decreasing intolerance of uncertainty and preventing catastrophic misinterpretations of physiological arousal.

In the presentation, relevant evidence regarding the link between anxiety and specific cognitive and behavioural factors included in the model will be presented first, followed by a description of how we propose adventurous play might decrease children’s risk for anxiety by targeting these factors. The core hypotheses that are derived from this new conceptual model will then be outlined. If our conceptual model is correct then ensuring that children have the physical and psychological space required to play in an adventurous way may help to decrease their risk for elevated or clinical anxiety.

Authors

• Helen Dodd, University of Reading
  Presenting Author

• Kathryn Lester, University of Sussex
  Non-Presenting Author