The role of offline, hybrid, and online play in socio-emotional and cognitive functioning among school-aged children and adolescents in Italian-speaking Switzerland: A mixed-methods study

Play is a spontaneous, pleasurable, and rewarding activity that is crucial for the socio-emotional and cognitive development of children and adolescents (Nijhof et al., 2018). In the transition from childhood to adolescence, offline play, such as active play on playgrounds or playing fields (Truelove et al., 2017), is increasingly substituted by more sedentary play (e.g., board games) and video gaming. In 2021, in Switzerland, 64% of children aged 6 to 13 played video games at least once a week, with marked age (6/7y: 52%; 12/13: 79%) and gender (males: 77%; females: 51%) differences (Suter et al., 2023). In addition, children today are the first generation to grow up with what can be termed ‘hybrid’ play in form of toys connected to the internet and commanded remotely. According to the EU Kids Online Report, in 2020, on average, 6% of children and adolescents aged 9 to 16 years used a toy connected to the internet daily (Smahel et al., 2020). Thus, the question arises of how school-aged children and adolescents play today and how play is linked to their socio-emotional and cognitive development. The OHOPlay project aims to understand (i) to which extent school-aged children and adolescents engage in different forms of offline, hybrid, and online play, (ii) what is the role of these forms of play in their socio-emotional and cognitive functioning, and (iii) whether disparities exist in the different forms of play and their associations with socio-emotional and cognitive functioning dependent on gender, age, socio-economic background, and health-related vulnerabilities of children and adolescents.

The project addresses these questions in four inter-related work packages (WPs) using a mixed-methods design: WP1 encompasses a qualitative focus-group study to explore recent trends in offline, hybrid, and online play among school-aged children and adolescents, motivations for play, and to what extent the different forms of play are free play or guided by adults. WP2 comprises a deductive-inductive content analysis of categorizations of play available in the scientific and grey literature and insights from the focus group study in WP1 to create a holistic map of offline, hybrid, and online play including subdimensions to be used in WPs 3 and 4. WP3 includes a 3-wave longitudinal study using an accelerated cohort design to investigate the reciprocal relationship between offline, hybrid, and online play and socio-emotional and cognitive functioning in children and adolescents, taking into consideration further subdimensions of play as well as dispositional, developmental, and social susceptibility factors to study potential disparities. WP4 consists of an evidence collection to formulate recommendations and co-creation workshops which bring together children, adolescents, parents, and educators to jointly design an intervention to promote age-appropriate leisure play which is beneficial for socio-emotional and cognitive development during childhood and adolescence. The project will advance our understanding of the complex relationships between offline, hybrid, and online play and socio-emotional and cognitive functioning during the early developmental years. Furthermore, it produces a White Paper including evidence-based recommendations and proposes an intervention to promote beneficial play activities.