Playing With Fear: Patterns Of Engagement With Recreational Fear Among 1-17-Year-Old Danish Children

TY - ABST

T1 - Playing With Fear: Patterns Of Engagement With Recreational Fear Among 1-17-Year-Old Danish Children

AU - Taranu, Mihaela

AU - Andersen, Marc

AU - Rosas, Fernando E.

AU - Dodd, Helen

AU - Clasen, Mathias

PY - 2023/6

Y1 - 2023/6

N2 - While there is an established understanding of fear as an aversive emotion, recreational fear — when people enjoy being frightened — is still poorly understood. No systematic study has assessed how children at different ages engage across types of playful recreational fear activities. Here we present results from a survey study in which 1600 caregivers of Danish children between 1-17 years of age were asked whether their children enjoy engaging across several types of recreational fear activities, as well as with whom, where, and how often they engage in such activities. Our survey considered 19 types of playful recreational fear activities, which ranged from rough-and-tumble and high speeds activities to playful paranormal activities and social rule breaking. Our results show that, across development, children’s engagement with playful recreational fear activities is high, 93% of the children being reported to engage in at least one type of recreational fear activity. Activities with the highest engagement were high speeds/heights/depths (62%), followed by movies/TV series and video games (40-44%). The least engaged in activities involved social rule breaking (9%) or pain infliction (6%). Overall, our results support the importance of looking closer across multiple types of recreational fear play activities across children’s development

AB - While there is an established understanding of fear as an aversive emotion, recreational fear — when people enjoy being frightened — is still poorly understood. No systematic study has assessed how children at different ages engage across types of playful recreational fear activities. Here we present results from a survey study in which 1600 caregivers of Danish children between 1-17 years of age were asked whether their children enjoy engaging across several types of recreational fear activities, as well as with whom, where, and how often they engage in such activities. Our survey considered 19 types of playful recreational fear activities, which ranged from rough-and-tumble and high speeds activities to playful paranormal activities and social rule breaking. Our results show that, across development, children’s engagement with playful recreational fear activities is high, 93% of the children being reported to engage in at least one type of recreational fear activity. Activities with the highest engagement were high speeds/heights/depths (62%), followed by movies/TV series and video games (40-44%). The least engaged in activities involved social rule breaking (9%) or pain infliction (6%). Overall, our results support the importance of looking closer across multiple types of recreational fear play activities across children’s development

KW - Fear

KW - Methods

KW - Survey

KW - Development

KW - Child

M3 - Conference abstract for conference

T2 - 2023 International Play Association TRIENNIAL WORLD CONFERENCE

Y2 - 6 June 2023 through 9 June 2023

ER -