It has been observed that boys engage in more war play than girls (Costabile et al., 1992). Furthermore, parental attitudes, television programmes, and the play choices of peers and siblings seem to be influencing children’s play type selection. However, when it comes to school settings, there was a consensus that war-related toys should not be allowed, as they do not match with the values that they would like their children to adopt. (1992) found varying opinions about war play at home: not approving it and not buying toy guns, not approving but not discouraging it, being unsure or believing it is a natural behavior and even joining the play. Through a survey of Western European parents’ attitudes, Costabile et al. In other words, are there reasons to discourage this type of play?īefore looking at the behavioral consequences of war play, it is worth mentioning that both parents’ attitudes towards such play and media exposure are involved in the extent to which children practice it. The question that arises is whether there are negative effects of war play on the behavior of children which potentially offset the benefits that pretend play has in general.
War play is a type of pretend play, but its content is about conflict and violence.
Pretend play in particular was shown to be valuable for supporting divergent thinking, school achievement (Wallance & Russ, 2015), and cognitive and emotional regulation (Slot, Mulder, Verhagen & Leseman, 2015). Playful activities hide deeper meanings and shape the development of important capacities like problem-solving, decision-making, language, creativity, or social skills (Burriss & Tsao, 2002).
Even though it may seem superficial, play is undeniably essential for development.
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