Preschoolers’ free play : connections with emotional and social functioning

Play has an important role in various aspects of children’s development. However, time for free play has declined substantially over the last decades. To date, few studies have focused on the relationship between opportunities for free play and children’s social functioning. The aims of this study are to examine whether children´s free play is related to their social functioning and whether this relationship is mediated by children´s emotional functioning. Seventy-eight children (age, 55- 77 months) were tested on their theory of mind and emotion understanding. Parents reported on their children’s time for free play, empathic abilities, social competence and externalizing behaviors. The main findings showed that free play and children’s theory of mind are negatively related to externalizing behaviors. Empathy was strongly related to children’s social competence, but free play and social competence were not associated. Less time for free play is related to more disruptive behaviors in preschool children, however certain emotional functioning skills influence these behaviors independently of the time children have for free play. These outcomes suggest that free play might help to prevent the development of disruptive behaviors, but future studies should further examine the causality of this relationship.peer-reviewe

Jogo de luta e perseguição - Um contexto de socialização da agressividade?

O jogo constitui uma parte significativa da infância, assumindo um papel determinante para o desenvolvimento saudável e adaptativo da criança. Como acontece noutras espécies, brincar com os pais, os irmãos e os amigos cria um ambiente positivo, estimulante e facilitador para a prática de habilidades que são essenciais a curto e a longo prazo. Existem diferentes formas de jogo, que têm sido associadas a diferentes funções desenvolvimentais. O jogo de luta e perseguição é o tipo de jogo mais frequente e mais estudado nas espécies animais, contudo, no que diz respeito ao desenvolvimento da criança, os estudos são mais escassos e nem sempre consensuais relativamente à função adaptativa desta forma de jogo. Este artigo pretende focar o papel do jogo de luta e perseguição na socialização da agressividade ao longo do desenvolvimento da criança, apresentando quer as perspetivas favoráveis a este tipo de jogo como contexto privilegiado para o desenvolvimento da capacidade de regulação emocional, quer as perspetivas que associam esta forma de jogo à agressividade

Associations of body image with internalizing symptoms and bullying in adolescents.

The aim of this study was to examine the association between adolescents' body image and internalizing symptoms and bullying. Forty-four portuguese adolescents (19 boys and 25 girls, aged 12-16 years old) completed the Collins’ Child Figure Drawings, the Preoccupation with Body Appearance questionnaire, the Children’s Depression Inventory, the Preoccupation/Rumination questionnaire, the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents, the Self-report Behaviors during Bullying Episodes and the Florence Cyberbullying-Cybervictimization Scales. Higher preoccupation with body appearance was moderately associated (p<.05) with higher negative humor, negative selfesteem, preoccupation/rumination, fear of social negative evaluation, and victimization during bullying episodes. Higher dissatisfaction with body image (assessed by Collins’ Child Figure Drawings) was moderately associated (p<.05) with higher interpersonal problems, victimization during bullying episodes and cyberbullying victimization. These findings suggest that negative self-evaluation of body image may have major implications for adolescents' psychological wellbeing, and that it is important to determine whether there is a causal relationship

A psychomotor rehabilitation intervention to improve health and well-being indicators of institutionalized older adults.

INTRODUCTION Institutionalization tends to exacerbate the usual fragility and disability associated with the ageing process (Heppenstall, Wilkinson, Hanger, Keeling, & Pearson, 2011). In turn, poor health and well-being compromise older adults’ quality of life. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of a psychomotor rehabilitation program on health and well-being indicators of institutionalized older adults. METHODOLOGY A total of 42 nursing home residents (84 ± 6.2 years) participated in the study: 21 were allocated to the experimental group (EG: engaged the rehabilitation program twice a week for 75 min), and 21 were allocated to the control group (CG: maintained daily institution activities). The Mini Mental State Examination was used to screen severe cognitive impairment as an exclusion criteria. Mood states, pain, disability and self-rated health were assessed through the Profile of Mood States, the P4 Pain Scale, the Barthel Index, and the EuroQol visual analogue scale, respectively. After finishing the study, the CG attended the rehabilitation program.RESULTS Comparisons showed that: in terms of mood states, both groups showed improvements in tension, whereas only the EG demonstrated improvements in depression, anger, vigor, fatigue, and confusion (treatment effect: -0.23 to -2.60); the EG experienced a decrease in pain (treatment effect: 0.21 to 0.50), while the CG showed an increase; finally, in terms of the disability level and the self-rated health the EG experienced no changes, whereas these indicators worsened in the CG (p <0.05). CONCLUSION The psychomotor program was able to revert the expected loss of health and well-being characteristic of older people, particularly the institutionalized ones. Specifically, the program was effective in improving the mood states and in decreasing pain of the nursing home residents, as well as in maintaining their disability level and health status. These findings suggest that the general adherence of nursing home residents to psychomotor rehabilitation programs may improve the quality of life of our oldest adults

Attachment and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescence: The Mediatory Role of Emotion Awareness

Attachment seems to influence depression through emotion regulation. However, no study has yet examined the mediatory role of emotion awareness, a particular subset of emotion regulation abilities, in the relationship between attachment and depressive problems in early and middle adolescence. The aim of this study is to examine the direct and indirect effects of attachment on depressive symptoms in adolescence, considering the mediatory role of emotion awareness dimensions. A sample of adolescents (n = 223) filled up self-report questionnaires on attachment, emotion awareness and depression. Serial mediation models suggest direct effects on depression: negative for secure attachment and positive for anxious/ambivalent attachment. Anxious/ambivalent attachment has a positive indirect effect through lower differentiation of emotions. Both secure and anxious/ambivalent attachment have indirect positive effects on depression through the sequence of bodily unawareness and differentiation of emotions. Differentiating emotions has a central role in mediating the relationship between attachment and depressive symptoms, and the lack of bodily awareness of emotions contributes to such mediation

Inovações no estudo do comportamento das crianças com sensores de proximidade

A possibilidade de recolha contínua de dados massivos através de dispositivos digitais está a mudar a forma como estudamos o comportamento e o desenvolvimento da criança. Neste trabalho apresentamos um método inovador de mensuração que permite recolher e analisar de forma contínua e simultânea as dinâmicas de interação face-a-face, através de sensores de proximidade baseados em dispositivos de Identificação por Rádio-Frequência (RFID). Os sensores foram usados por 72 crianças (44 rapazes) de um Jardim de Infância com idades compreendidas entre os 53 e os 77 meses (M=63.2±4.9). O objetivo foi caracterizar os padrões de interação estabelecidos no recreio exterior em termos dos tempos médios em interação, da preferência por interações mediante o género do par e da preferência por interações em díade ou em grupo. As potencialidades e as limitações deste método de recolha e análise são discutidas na perspetiva do estudo do desenvolvimento da criança

RISKY PLAY IN OUTDOOR ENVIRONMENTS

Risky play can be defined as thrilling and exciting forms of children’s play that involve a risk of harm. Risky play is natural during children’s play, and taking risks is an important and necessary part of outdoor play. Outdoor environments provide an excellent opportunity for children to be more physically active and less sedentary, which is important for their development and health. Additionally, outdoor spaces afford some risk of physical injury, and the risks of playing outdoor provide unique opportunities for physical, cognitive, and social development. During risky play, children experience increasing challenges and perceive opportunities for action or affordances for different elements. This chapter explores the concept of risky play and its categorization, the emotions and feelings experienced by children when engaging in risky play, the affordances and perception of affordances for risky play, and risky play and children’s safety

The Importance of Outdoor Practices for Children's Health and Development and for the Community

Whether on the street, in a park, or in a forest, one of the most favorite places for children to be is the outdoors. Parents, teachers, community authorities, and the general public should be aware of how playing outside has so much potential, so many benefits, and can be so enjoyable for everyone. What makes the outdoors a unique context for children's health and development? How the community benefits from having their children playing out? First, the outdoors is an open environment where noisy voices, large, exuberant, and risky movements are allowed, which gives children a sense of joy and freedom of being and doing (Bilton, 2010; Sandseter, 2009). Such a big scale scenario also makes children move more, sit less, and play longer (Gray et al., 2015). While outdoors, children are exposed to sunlight, fresh air, and natural and living things, benefiting their health and development (Bilton, 2010; Dyment & Bell, 2008)

Planning and Developing Outdoor-Oriented Practices with Children

Promoting children’s outdoor play depends much on adults’ knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes regarding children’s development and the outdoor. An inappropriate approach to outdoor practices can hold back parents and teachers from going outside, making children feel afraid of exploring and preventing them from taking the best from the outdoors. This chapter aims to support the planning and development of outdoor activities, highlight key aspects that should always be accounted

Body ownership of women with and without history of intimate partner violence

The aims of the present study were: (i) to compare the sense of body ownership between women with and without a history of IPV (ii) to analyze the relationships between body ownership and mental health variables (e.g., behaviors of self-injury, suicidal ideation, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Anxiety or Depression diagnoses). The RHI protocol (Rabellino et al., 2016) was administered to twenty-seven women victims of IPV living in Portuguese shelters (IPV group; mean age 39.7 ± 10.6 years), and to twenty-seven women non-victims of IPV living in the community (no-IPV group; mean age 43.6 ± 11.4 years). The results sustain the hypothesis of a weakened sense of body ownership in women victims of IPV, along with higher prevalence of physical and mental health problems. We suggest that therapeutic interventions directed to IPV victims address their body ownership, and preventive actions to bring community awareness about the importance of promoting the sense of body ownership