Children's Risky Play and Resilience: Perspectives of Emergency Care Practitioners

Background: Parents' perspectives on children's risky play can provide researchers with insight into their injury prevention and safety needs and support researchers in understanding how challenging and exciting play may positively shape children's physical, cognitive, and social development. To date, however, the perspectives of parents who witness severe injuries as part of occupational experiences, and who have medical training, are lacking within this scholarship. In this study, we worked with emergency room practitioners to understand their perspectives on children's risky play and resilience. Methods: A risk and sociocultural theoretical lens informed our approach and we conducted semi-structured interviews with doctors and nurses (n = 56) across Canada who had children between the ages of 4 and 13. Results: Findings from a thematic analysis were threefold: (1) learning to persevere through failure, (2) developing distress tolerance, and (3) supporting child autonomy and independence. Conclusion: Findings indicate doctors and nurses can perceive children as more emotionally and physically equipped to cope with stressful and potentially injurious situations across their lifespan if they are exposed to challenging and exciting play during childhood. Further, while the practitioners believed it was important to intervene in play which could result in children experiencing severe injuries, they believed adults should support children in testing their physical and cognitive boundaries during risky play without adult interference.