Influencing factors on professional attitudes towards risk-taking in children’s play: a narrative review

ABSTRACT

There is a growing concern that adults who supervise children’s play may restrict opportunities for children to engage in risky activities. Risk-benefit assessment is commonly advocated as a way of allowing children to take managed risks within settings. However ‘risk-benefit’ adopts a limited strategy of convincing professionals of the developmental benefits of risk, disregarding other factors which may also influence professionals when making risk assessments in their settings. This paper proposes an alternative approach to supporting practitioners in allowing risk by exploring the complexity of these influencing factors. A narrative literature review identifies five inter-related factors which affect professionals’ attitudes to risk. The relationships between these factors are discussed and presented as a model which illustrates the complexity faced by practitioners when carrying out risk assessments. The authors argue that children’s opportunities to benefit from risk in play may increase if these influencing factors could be explored within professional development.

KEYWORDS:

• Risky play
• early childhood
• narrative review
• Bronfenbrenner’s model
• professional practice
• playwork practice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Martin van Rooijen is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht, the Netherlands. His primary research focus is on risk in play and resilience of children in outdoor environments as well as normative professionalism of pedagogues with children in their care. He is involved in Dutch networks on nature play, children’s play rights and is a member of the Dutch Korczak Foundation.

Shelly Newstead is a Ph.D. candidate at the UCL Institute of Education, London, UK, researching the development of playwork practice. She is the Managing Editor of Journal of Playwork Practice and Vice-President of the International Council for Children’s Play.

ORCiD

Martin van Rooijen http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7544-8358

Shelly Newstead http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7398-1135