Humans are social animals and learning to play with others at a young age is a mandatory experience.
When looking at data of 1,676 children from the Growing up in Australia study, researchers from the University of Cambridge found that early ability to engage with other children decreased risk of certain mental health later. The Growing up in Australia study followed children born between the years of 2003 through 2004, including records provided by parents and giver including at age three describing the child’s peer play indicators including simple games, imaginative pretend play, goal-directed activities, and collaborative games. These indicators were used to create a measure a child’s ability to engage with peers in a playful way.
The researchers then calculated the relationship between such abilities at age three to possible mental health problems at age seven, including hyperactivity, conduct problems, emotional problems, and problems associating with peers.
They found that high peer play ability at age three consistently predicted fewer mental health difficulties at age seven. For every unit of increase in peer play ability at three years old, lead to: 8.4% decrease in hyperactivity, 8% decrease in conduct problems, 9.8% decrease in emotional problems, and 14% decrease in peer related problems. These findings were found regardless of poverty levels, maternal distress, and presence of sibling and parents.
The researchers also analyzed 2 subsets of children: those with low persistence and those with high reactivity. Low persistence are children who struggled to persevere in the face of challenging tasks. High reactivity are children who are easily upset and difficulty to calm. Both of which had been shown in prior research to lead to poorer quality mental health outcomes.
They found the outcomes of the study held true for those with low persistence, as these children also had lower risks of hyperactivity, emotional problems, and peer problems at age seven.
However, the benefits had weaker link for those with high reactivity except for better outcomes with hyperactivity.
Exposing children to peer play, and a positive experience at that, leads to better emotional self-control and social skills in the future. These children develop better skills such as those in empathy and being able to negotiate different social environments in a positive way.
The researchers believe that seeing how children interact with other children at an early age can help screen for future social maladaptations and mental health issues. In addition, it just comes to show that people need to be realistic about what their children is like with others and put them into social situations at a young age, as well as teaching children how to interact with others in a positive way.
YV Zhao and JL Gibson. Evidence for protective effects of peer play in the early years: better peer play ability at age 3 years predicts lower risks of externalising and internalising problems at age 7 years in a longitudinal cohort analysis. Child Psychiatry & Human Development. DOI: 10.1007/s10578-022-01368-x
