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Retheorising ‘Risky’ Play in a Global Context : Addressing the Safety Needs of Refugee and Displaced Families

B.C. Injury Research and Prevention Unit

A wealth of scholarship demonstrates the developmental benefits of risky play for children. However, this scholarship has overwhelmingly focused on the experiences of children and their caregivers from Euro‐Western nations. It is imperative to explore child and caregiver perspectives on child risk, injury and play in communities where children experience a disproportionate burden of injuries resulting from play such as in refugee communities. For this research, we focused on Syrian refugee camps (n = 3) and villages (n = 4) across Lebanon and conducted semi‐structured interviews with children (n = 79) and caregivers (n = 56) to explore perspectives on child risk, injury and play. Our approach was informed through tenets of poststructural feminist theory, and a critical discourse analysis was conducted. Two major discourses were identified: (1) children engage in dangerous and injurious play; and (2) environmental and social barriers limit play opportunities. Findings suggest that the children often experienced discrimination and severe injuries as a result of engagement in play which resulted in longterm financial and physical burdens. These findings challenge Euro‐Western risky play paradigms and inform injury prevention and play scholarship with the voices of families from equity‐deserving communities.

Article

eng

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0448201

Medicine, Faculty of; Non UBC; Pediatrics, Department of

10.1111/1467-9566.70007

Faculty; Other

DSpace