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This pilot study tested for socioeconomic status (SES) differences in the frequency of social play in British children. Participants were 40 children, 3-5 years old, selected in equal numbers from two nurseries, one in a high and the other in a low SES borough of East England. Ten episodes of play from each nursery were observed, transcribed, and coded into Parten's (1932) play categories (parallel, associative, and co-operative play) obtaining a total of 282 instances of social play. The child's frequencies of the three types of social play were used as the dependent variables in a SES × Gender multivariate analysis of variance. There was only one significant result, the main effect of SES for associative play, indicating that this type of play is twice as frequent in low as in high SES children. Findings indicate that there are no SES or gender differences in the overall frequency of social play, but children of low SES have a significantly stronger propensity toward associative play.
Keywords: children's play, social play, sociodramatic play, socioeconomic status, gender.
Classic developmental theories maintain that play during childhood fosters motivational, intellectual, and psychosocial development. Freud (1965) viewed play as a means of relieving pent-up emotions and coping with challenging life situations whilst having a secure environment in which to do so. Vygotsky (1966) saw play as the creation of a zone of proximal development that children use to work through new problems and develop their intellectual skills. Piaget (1962) proposed that play is an expression of the process of assimilation, whereas imitation is an expression of the process of accommodation. All three theories point out that play during childhood provides positive developmental experiences.
The relevance of play has been investigated more recently by focusing on intrinsic motivation, which is the inherent tendency to explore and learn (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Developmental psychologists have observed that children are active and playful from birth even without external rewards (e.g., Harter, 1978). This observation has led researchers to argue that play is the key activity through which children explore new stimuli, build a sense of competence, relatedness and autonomous functioning, and develop intrinsic motivation as an adult disposition, which - in turn - typifies a principal source of vitality and enjoyment throughout life...