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

Abstract

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 post-structural 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 long-term 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.