Indoor play during a global pandemic: commonalities and diversities during a unique snapshot in time

The first case of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was diagnosed in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and the outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020. By the end of March 2020, 136 countries had positive COVID-19 cases. Meanwhile, in response to the virus, countries instigated various forms of ‘lock-downs’ and social distancing measures. Globally, children and adolescents could not meet and play or hang out with their friends as they did pre-pandemic. These changes essentially drove children (4–18 years) indoors for their play and recreation needs, instigating significant changes in the lives and day-to-day routines of children almost simultaneously in and across national borders. To understand the impact of these changes to children's play worlds and friendship groups, an online questionnaire was developed for children and parents and rolled out in Ireland, Italy, the United States, and England during the summer of 2020 following ethical approvals. The questionnaire consisted of qualitative (open ended) and quantitative (closed) questions and this paper focuses on the changes to children's (4–18 years) indoor play. We found that the various ‘lock-downs’ and social distancing measures created largely similar impacts on play behaviors and activities in each developed country, irrespective of culture, the globally did indeed become ‘local’. Moreover, playing in ‘safe settings’ such as the home environment, may have helped to build resilience and to enhance protective factors in children's lives as opposed to a demonstration of global homogeneity. The impact of ‘lock-downs’ may counter-intuitively have reduced opportunities for cooperative play and parents' mediation of play due to increased parental responsibilities (working from home, home schooling) which reduced the time available to spend with children in non-school activities, including play.