ArticleClinical child and family psychology review2021
Adventurous Play as a Mechanism for Reducing Risk for Childhood Anxiety: A Conceptual Model.
Article in Clinical child and family psychology review, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 95 citations in OpenAlex.
- "All the fun stuff, the teachers say, 'that's dangerous!'" Hearing from children on safety and risk in active play in schools: a systematic review.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2022Pooled it
- Early outdoor play predicts trajectories of child mental health in a population-based cohort.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Article
- Outdoor play and risk in kids: a cross-sectional study.Archives of disease in childhood · 2026Article
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- Article
- Risky Outdoor Play and Adventure Education in Nature for Child and Adolescent Wellbeing: A Scoping Review.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Parental tolerance of risk and associations to adventurous play in British preschool-aged children.Preventive medicine reports · 2025Article
- From welfare indicator to welfare contributor: the role of play in building flexibility and resilience in captive animals.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Review
- 2025 Position statement on active outdoor play.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Review
- Parental Attitudes to Risky Play and Children's Independent Mobility: Public Health Implications for Children in Ireland.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Risky Play Is Not a Dirty Word: A Tool to Measure Benefit-Risk in Outdoor Playgrounds and Educational Settings.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Recreational Fear Across Childhood. A Cross-Sectional Study of Scary Activities that Children Enjoy.Child psychiatry and human development · 2025Article
- Incidence and severity of paediatric sledding injuries during the COVID-19 pandemic.Paediatrics & child health · 2025Article
- Children's Risky Play and Resilience: Perspectives of Emergency Care Practitioners.Child: care, health and development · 2025Article
- Introducing the Multidimensional Toolkit for the Assessment of Play in Schools (M-TAPS): a reliability study.F1000Research · 2025Article
- A generational relational model of nature and mental wellbeing: results of a qualitative analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Food allergy thresholds, context, and balance in 2025.Journal of food allergy · 2024Article
- Healthy childhood development through outdoor risky play: Navigating the balance with injury prevention.Paediatrics & child health · 2024Review
- Le développement sain de l'enfant par le jeu risqué extérieur : un équilibre à trouver avec la prévention des blessures.Paediatrics & child health · 2024Review
- "And I still remember it to this day": A qualitative exploration of retrospective memories of school-based recess.Public health in practice (Oxford, England) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
In this conceptual article, we draw upon the literature regarding cognitive and behavioural factors that underpin childhood anxiety to outline how a range of these risk markers might be targeted through adventurous play. When children play in an adventurous way, climbing trees, riding their bikes fast downhill and jumping from rocks, they experience feelings of fear and excitement, thrill and adrenaline. We propose that the positive, thrilling and playful emotions associated with this type of child-led play facilitate exposure to fear-provoking situations and, in doing so, provide opportunities for children to learn about physiological arousal, uncertainty and coping. We hypothesise that these learning opportunities will, over time, reduce children's risk for elevated anxiety by increasing children's expectations and ability to cope with anxiety, decreasing intolerance of uncertainty and preventing catastrophic misinterpretations of physiological arousal. If our conceptual model is correct, then ensuring that children have the physical and psychological space required to play in an adventurous way may help to decrease their risk for elevated or clinical anxiety.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.