Abstract

STEFANI, Graciela; ANDRES, Laura  and  OANES, Estela. Playful transformations: A preliminary study on type of play and type of setting. Interdisciplinaria [online]. 2014, vol.31, n.1, pp.39-55. ISSN 1668-7027.

Nowadays, children’s play culture has changed. Over the last few decades, in Buenos Aires City, there have been many changes in play settings, which lead children to carry out activities in private or semi-public environments, modifying the way in which they play. Children’s play, understood as a space where children formerly trained their different skills, is being increasingly influenced by new technologies. At the same time, these new environments allow children to have new experiences. Children’s play has been changing as time goes by; some games have been passed down, such as traditional games; some others have been modified, for example role-playing, and others have disappeared or tend to do so. Digital options for children, which offer play and interactivity, are fully in line with the logic of consumption and they vary according to social economical level. New generations incorporate these tools since their childhood, modifying childlike habits which held good for decades. We find that some decades ago, children used to play group games outdoors, on the streets around their neighborhood, at parks or at sport centers. Games such as elastics, hide and seek, skipping the rope, etc. were played on a daily basis while an adult was looking after the children. Nowadays, due to insecurity in the streets, children play indoors, in closed environments, or in private or institutional settings, and they play individually. The objective in conducting this study was to describe and analyze the changes in play habits which have been taking place, from information taken from research on children’s play, play settings, and perception and recollection from subjects belonging to different generations. In this study, 516 participants belonging to the middle class in Buenos Aires City (Argentina), who were grouped in four age ranges: young children, adolescents, young adults and adults, were given a semi-structured questionnaire (Stefani, Andrés & Oanes, 2010). About play formats N and A which has been devised to build up knowledge about different types of play and play settings across generations. The constant comparison method was used to classify the obtained data into different types of play and play settings, in order to describe similarities and differences among the answers given by each study group. Furthermore, frequencies, averages, mean, median, and standard deviation prevailing in each age group were drawnfromthat. Statistically significant proof tests were per -ormed: analysis of factor variance for the variable Type of play, and Chi-square Attribute Independence Test for the variable Type of setting. The results allow us to observe that play habits have been changing together with the places where they are developed, leading children to carry out their playful activities primarily indoors. Traditional games are shared by all generations, with slight variations, but without altering their essence, many of them consist of physical play like chase (chasing games), and hide and seek. Pretend / role-play has changed, as children use technology to play, increasingly incorporating electronic devices that grown-ups use for their work and social activities. In this way it is observed that play reflects and reproduces society. We are in a moment of transition, changes in play habits and settings will make an impact on the way new generations build emotional and social skills. This leads us to think that this moment of transition, or experience crisis, comprises new possibilities, but at the same time, new risks such as individualism, isolation, negation of the other as a fellow human being, as the use of technology is basically an individual activity. A new virtual agora has been incorporated, with a new social order in which children are just one click away from socializing and opening the door to go out to play.

Keywords : Play; Play culture; Transformations; Play settings; Cross-generational change.

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