Child’s Play: Anatomically Correct Dolls and Embodiment

Anatomically detailed dolls have been used to elicit testimony from children in sex abuse cases. However, studies have shown they often provide false accounts in young, preschool-age children. Typically this problem is seen as a cognitive one: with age, children can correctly map their bodies onto a doll due to greater intellectual ability to represent themselves. I argue, along with the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, that although cognitive developments aid in the ability to represent one’s own body, a discussion of embodiment is required in order to understand the use and abuse of anatomical dolls in forensic interviews. This paper examines these issues and maintains that a better understanding of embodied perception in both adults and children helps show how phenomenology can provide a more nuanced understanding to a troubling ethical and legal problem.

Feeling Exhausted? Let’s Play – How Play in Work Relates to Experienced Burnout and Innovation Behaviors

Play in work, as one specific type of work designs, is regarded as the possible solution to experienced burnout and could bring the desirable outcomes to organizations. Drawing on Affective Events Theory (AET), we argued that workplace events (such as play) cause emotional reactions on the part of employees (i.e., burnout), which in turn influence workplace attitudes and behaviors (i.e., innovation behaviors). A total of 439 employees completed surveys, and the results showed that play in work positively relates to innovation behaviors. We also examined individual’s attitude toward workplace fun to further understand the impact of individual differences on the relationship between play in work and their feelings and subsequent behaviors. We found that the positive attitude toward fun moderated the indirect relationship between play in work and innovation behaviors via experienced burnout. Based on AET, our results showed that play in work could reduce employees’ experienced burnout which in turn lead to their innovation behaviors. Such an effect of play in work are stronger when an individual has more positive attitude toward fun at work. Practically, it is suggested that play in work would contribute to favorable outcomes in the workplace, but managers should pay attention to individual differences in attitude toward workplace fun to ensure the maximum benefit of play.

     

Play Profile Constructions: An Empirical Assessment of Children’s Play in Psychodynamic Play Therapy

Play assessment can be used therapeutically to determine whether and how play would be an appropriate intervention mode for children with clinical diagnoses, and to track their therapeutic progress. However, detailed and standardized play protocols that can catalogue children’s play behaviors in psychodynamic therapy are not widely available. The aim of this study was to empirically construct profiles of play using items selected from the Children’s Play Therapy Instrument (CPTI), reflecting the complex play patterns of children with mental health difficulties. These constructed play profiles integrate quantitative items associated with cognitive, affective, social qualities of play, as well as children’s coping strategies. The initial session of 62 children in psychodynamic play therapy was recorded, transcribed and coded using the CPTI, and children’s play profiles were computed. The reliability of the play profiles, and their preliminary associations with children’s symptomatic and behavioral functioning were tested. Results showed that the play profiles showed good inter-rater reliability, internal consistency and their associations were in expected directions with the majority of the criterion measures. Given the limitations of the current empirical play measures in clinical settings, the preliminary validation provided in this study of the play profiles add a significant contribution to existing literature.     

Gender Differences in Elaborative Parent–Child Emotion and Play Narratives

Reminiscing about the past is an everyday activity that has implications for children’s developing memory and socioemotional skills. However, little research has systematically examined how mothers and fathers may differentially elaborate and engage their daughters and sons in reminiscing. In this study, we asked 42 broadly middle-class, highly educated U.S., mostly Caucasian mothers and fathers from the same families, living in the southeastern U.S., to reminisce about a happy, sad, peer conflict, parental conflict, playground and special outing experience with their 4-year-old child. Narratives were coded for parental styles of cognitive elaboration and joint engagement. Results indicated that mothers are both more elaborative and engaged with children than fathers are, especially about negative emotional and positive play experiences. Thus, mothers appear to be helping children recount and understand their personal past more than fathers, and specifically, in working through difficult emotions that may facilitate emotion regulation skills.     

Let’s Play: Using Systemic and Experiential Techniques in the Play Therapy Instruction of MFT Masters’ Students

Marriage and family therapists are uniquely poised to work with entire families, including children. It is surprising then, that so few MFTs affiliate with play therapy. Many COAMFTE accredited masters’ programs offer some form of play therapy training, but therapists often report feeling uncomfortable with play therapy (Gil, 2015). In this paper, we offer a condensed refresher course on play therapy for MFTs, including suggested readings, materials, and instructions to expand training from a 2-day seminar to a 14-week course. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of offering play therapy instruction as a semester long required course for masters’ students.     

Assessment of Pretend Play in Preschool-Aged Children: Validation and Factor Analysis of the Affect in Play Scale–Preschool Version

The Affect in Play Scale–Preschool (APS–P) and Affect in Play Scale–Preschool–Brief Rating (APS–P–BR) versions assess cognitive and affective play processes during a 5-min standardized play task. In this study, construct validity, external validity, and factor analyses for each scale were examined in 107 preschoolers. Reliability and validity were supported. Unlike results found with school-aged samples, positive affect loaded with the cognitive variables on factor analyses of the APS–P and APS–P–BR, suggesting that negative and undefined affect might represent a separate factor in preschool-aged children. Developmental significance and implications for use of the 2 scoring versions are discussed.     

HPV Vaccine Decision-Making and Acceptance: Does Religion Play a Role?

We conducted a web-based survey among 476 white, Black, and Hispanic parents or caregivers with daughter(s) between the ages of 9–17 to better understand how religion influences HPV vaccine acceptance. Catholic parents were more likely than nonaffiliated parents to have already vaccinated their daughters (vs. being undecided) (OR = 3.26, 95% CI = 1.06, 10.06). Parents with frequent attendance at religious services were more likely than parents who do not attend services to have decided against vaccination (vs. being undecided) (OR = 2.92, 95% CI = 1.25, 6.84). Directions for research and implications for interventions are addressed.     

Children and Psychotropic Medication: What Role Should Advocacy Counseling Play?

There are currently millions of children with mental and emotional symptoms who are being treated with psychotropic medication. The authors critique such treatment and suggest that advocacy counseling is a responsible approach to balance the power of both the pharmaceutical companies and the medical model in the mental health arena.     

Mother, Melancholia, and Play in Erik H. Erikson’s Childhood and Society

In an earlier article on Erik H. Erikson’s earliest writings (Capps, 2007), I focused on the relationship between the child’s melancholia and conflict with maternal authority, and drew attention to the restorative role of humor. In this article, I discuss two of the three chapters in part three, “The Growth of the Ego,” of Erikson’s first major book, Childhood and Society [Erikson, Childhood and society. New York: W. W. Norton, 1950, Childhood and society (rev. edition). New York: W. W. Norton, 1963]. I explore the same theme of the relationship of melancholia and the mother, but focus on the restorative role of play. I interpret the differences between the two cases in light of Sigmund Freud’s essay, “Mourning and Melancholia” [Freud, Mourning and melancholia. In S. Freud, General psychological theory (pp. 164–179). P. Rieff (ed.). New York: Collier Books. 1963].

Research and Practice in Talent Identification and Development—Some Thoughts on the State of Play

Although there has been considerable growth in talent identification and development research in sport over the last 20 years, in this commentary we argue that the mixed quality (e.g., the uncritical employment of retrospective and autobiographical data) and lack of applied focus of much of this research, together with organizational inertia, means that relatively little has changed in the applied landscape at the systems level. In an effort to clarify and redirect work in this important area, we propose the Performance-Outcome-Process continuum, a structure that examines ideas based on what and how they contribute to the talent development process and the multiple approaches that exist. Reflecting a pracademic focus, and the need to generate effective and applicable answers, we also highlight the importance of understanding the processes and underlying mechanisms of development-focused constructs to best support the integration of these ideas into applied talent development procedures. To close the research–practice divide, we conclude by suggesting a pragmatic approach that prioritizes both the quality of research and the importance of applied impact, at least in research that claims to be for sport.     

Gaming, Gender, and Time: Who Makes Time to Play?

This study investigated gender differences in the perceived benefits of workplace friendships and the relationship between friendship factors and organizational outcomes. Four hundred and forty-five respondents from predominantly Western countries including New Zealand, Australia and America completed an Internet based questionnaire which asked them to describe the benefits received from workplace friends, and which measured workplace friendship and organizational variables. Friendship prevalence and opportunities were more strongly correlated with job satisfaction for men. Women were significantly more likely than men to describe the benefits of workplace friendship in terms of social and emotional support in times of stress, while men focused mainly on the benefits friends provided them in their career or in functional aspects of ‘getting the job done’.     

Constructing Difference: Lego® Set Narratives Promote Stereotypic Gender Roles and Play

LEGO® construction sets are a staple in many children’s lives. Given worldwide distribution, generations of children have grown up playing with these brightly colored, interlocking plastic bricks. Historically marketed to all children, the LEGO® Group has begun targeting male and female consumers differentially with the introduction of product lines such as LEGO® City and LEGO® Friends. Although the packaging, marketing, brick colors, and characters have changed, little is known about whether these product series encourage differences in the way boys and girls play. This content analysis compared the play narratives of sets marketed to boys (LEGO® City) and girls (LEGO® Friends). Our analysis found distinct gendered messages that encourage boys to enact various skilled professions, heroism, and expertise, whereas girls are encouraged to focus on having hobbies, being domestic, caring for others, socializing, being amateurs, and appreciating and striving for beauty. Although LEGO® City and Friends sets offer opportunities for construction, they also promote stereotyped gender roles for enacting femininity and masculinity in play. Parents, educators, and practitioners often focus on the educational affordances of LEGO® construction. We recommend that they also consider the other lessons, both explicit and implicit, being taught through gender-specific LEGO® sets.     

Dr. Mom? Conversational Play and the Submergence of Professional Status in Childbirth

Through a close analysis of various moments within two hours of video-taped interaction, we investigate properties of the setting that the participants cannot ignore even as they transform them in various ways. These properties are not under local control. What is under control is revealed in the participants' “play” with the properties, including dangerous, “deep” play. In this process, some properties of the participants are rarely mentioned (e.g., that the laboring woman is an MD), others are repeatedly emphasized (e.g. the strength of contractions). And others appear in ways that have not been dealt with adequately in current theoretical frameworks. To deal with life-threatening lies, and jokes about lies, we must move away from theories of hegemonic particularity that rely on a habitus. Rather we must acknowledge the practical understandings revealed in the collective submergence of that which may be actively noted as potentially relevant and then set aside so that other tasks can be foregrounded and achieved.     

Young Children and Adults’ Sensitivity to Contexts for Social Conventions in Make-Believe Play

The author focused on how young children understand the nature of social conventions relating to pretend play. Twenty 4-year-olds, fifteen 6-year-olds, and 20 adults (undergraduate students) listened to vignettes in which a new child in each vignette violated a convention used by other children while playing. Participants indicated whether the violations would be corrected and whether someone needed to teach the conventions to the new children. The scope of a convention (wide versus narrow) in combination with how long the convention has been used affected 6-year-olds’ responses but not the responses of younger children or adults. In addition, there were age-related differences in participants’ beliefs about who could teach characters about the conventions and why characters might not need to be taught by others. These results demonstrate that children at the start of middle childhood can be sensitive to contextual differences in the conventions that shape everyday activities more so than adults and younger children.     

Depressive Symptoms and Tobacco Use: Does Religious Orientation Play a Protective Role?

Many studies have established an association between depression and smoking. The main objective of this study was to determine whether religious orientation moderates the relationship between depressive symptoms and tobacco use. This study utilized a cross-sectional data collection strategy to examine the relationship among depressive symptoms, religious orientation, and tobacco use among undergraduate students (N = 349) at a midsize southeastern university. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, the Extrinsic/Intrinsic Religious Orientation Scale-Revised and the Drinking and Drug Habits Questionnaire. Analyses using hierarchical linear regression indicate a significant interaction effect (depressive symptoms × extrinsic religious orientation) on tobacco use. Additional moderation analyses reveal a significant interaction effect between depressive symptoms and the extrinsic-personal religious orientation on tobacco use. Results suggest that having an extrinsic religious orientation, and specifically, the extrinsic-personal subtype, can protect against the effects of depressive symptoms. In this regard, individuals who turn to religion for solace or comfort may be less likely to engage in tobacco use when experiencing depressive symptoms. Limitations, future directions, and implications are discussed.     

Perceptions of Family Relationship Factors and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents: What Roles Do Parents and Gender Play?

The association of adolescents’ perceptions of family relationships and adolescent depressive symptoms was investigated using a sample of 2,918 youth participating in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997. Boys showed fewer depressive symptoms than girls, as hypothesized. In general, adolescents’ perceptions of family relationships were negatively related to depressive symptoms. Mother support of father predicted depressive symptoms for girls only, whereas father support of mother predicted depressive symptoms for boys only. These findings contradict previous research that suggested family functioning is more related to outcomes of adolescent girls than boys. Suggestions for future research and implications for marital and family therapists are discussed.     

Child’s Play: The Role of Play in Mitigating the Fear of Death Among Pediatric Palliative Care Team Patients,Families, and Caregivers

Terror Management Theory (TMT), derived from Ernest Becker’s The Denial of Death (1974), maintains that humans are motivated by the desire to overcome our fear of death by constructing meaning and significance in our lives in various ways, including making light of our mortality. In this paper, we examine the role of play as seriously ill children involved with a hospital-based palliative care team live out what may be the remainder of their lives. We question the function that play has, if any, in mitigating the fear of death among dying children and their caregivers. We explore formal and informal manners of therapeutic play among children and adults occurring in moments of terrible stress, pain, and the looming threat of death. We draw on playful representations of death from popular culture and from extended field research conducted with a pediatric palliative care team in a large regional children’s hospital caring for seriously ill children and their families, as patients, families, and caretakers struggle to make sense of their suffering, fear and loss.     

Contributions of Game Genre and Masculinity Ideologies to Associations Between Video Game Play and Men’s Risk-Taking Behavior

Previous investigations of mainstream video games have documented a high prevalence of risk-promoting content, as well as a positive relation between video game play and participation in risk-taking behaviors such as reckless driving, substance use, and delinquency. In this study, we extend this work by investigating the role of video game genre and masculinity ideology within this relation. A sample of 273 undergraduate men from a large Midwestern university completed online surveys of their video game exposure, masculinity ideology, and participation in a range of high-risk behaviors. Results indicate that playing sports video games is associated with greater alcohol use, drug use, and delinquent behaviors, but action games are only associated with greater delinquency. In contrast, playing online video games was negatively associated with alcohol and drug use. Furthermore, the relation between sports video games and participation in risky behaviors was fully mediated by participants’ adherence to masculinity ideology. These results reveal that the relations between video game play and risk outcomes were strongest for sports video games, and in some cases, were mediated by masculinity ideology.     

Students' Divergent Thinking and Teachers' Ratings of Creativity: Does Gender Play a Role?

The differences between genders regarding the properties of divergent thinking and teachers' ratings of students' creativity are the issue of the present research. Data gathered from three previous experimental studies in Greek primary school students (N total = 228) was used for this purpose. In these studies, divergent thinking tasks were assigned to students and teachers' ratings were collected. The results showed that there were indeed differences in performance — except in the subscale of originality — in favor of girls who were more likely to perform better when they had a male teacher. Teachers' ratings of creativity were not related to students' gender but to teachers' gender.     

The Intervention of Robot Caregivers and the Cultivation of Children’s Capability to Play

In this article, the authors examine whether and how robot caregivers can contribute to the welfare of children with various cognitive and physical impairments by expanding recreational opportunities for these children. The capabilities approach is used as a basis for informing the relevant discussion. Though important in its own right, having the opportunity to play is essential to the development of other capabilities central to human flourishing. Drawing from empirical studies, the authors show that the use of various types of robots has already helped some children with impairments. Recognizing the potential ethical pitfalls of robot caregiver intervention, however, the authors examine these concerns and conclude that an appropriately designed robot caregiver has the potential to contribute positively to the development of the capability to play while also enhancing the ability of human caregivers to understand and interact with care recipients.