Facilitators and barriers to adventurous play in British preschool-aged children: cross-sectional findings from the British Preschool Children’s Play Survey

Introduction: Adventurous play (AP), defined as play involving thrill, fear and uncertainty, has health and developmental benefits but can be challenging for parents to support. This study aimed to explore parent-reported facilitators and barriers to AP in preschool-aged children and whether these differ by sociodemographic characteristics. Methods: tests used to determine whether facilitators and barriers differed by sociodemographic characteristics (parent gender; child gender; ethnicity (white vs non-white); urbanicity (urban/suburban/rural); social grade (higher/lower); child age (2, 3 or 4 years); and child's perceived motor skills). Results: Parents of 1166 children provided valid data. Safety (15.0%) and supervision (10.4%) were the most commonly reported facilitators, with child preferences (χ²=10.74, p=0.0008) and parental attitudes (χ²=5.60, p=0.006) more likely to be reported by white (vs minority ethnic) parents. Barriers were dominated by concerns about physical injury (18.8%) and safety (11.7%), with risk of injury reported by mothers more frequently than fathers (χ²=21.5, p<0.001) and parental attributes reported more frequently than fathers (χ²=17.2, p<0.001). Conclusions: Ensuring safety and supervision are important facilitators for children's AP. Similar concerns about injury are perceived barriers. Given the benefits of AP for preschool-aged children, efforts to support AP opportunities should be prioritised. As the largest identified factor (both positive and negative) is children's safety, future research efforts should acknowledge this.