HOW DO THE DIVERSE DRIVERS OF CHILDREN’S (6-12) DIGITAL PLAY MEDIATE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIGITAL GAMES AND CHILDREN’S SUBJECTIVE WELLBEING?

Abstract

Though discursive shifts signal increasing enthusiasm for children's digital play when instrumental educational outcomes are evident, limited attention has been paid to its possible wellbeing benefits or the reasons that children engage with it. The time that children invest in digital game play presents an opportunity for the global digital games industry to contribute positively to children’s well-being. Empirical research must first examine the diverse relationships between children’s digital play and their wellbeing. This paper reports on an international, ecoculturally and ethnographically informed and semi-longitudinal study in collaboration with a children's digital game industry partner and a global child's rights organisation to consider: what drives the digital play choices and practices of a diverse cohort of children?; and how do these findings contribute to understanding the relationship between children’s digital play and their wellbeing? This paper draws on a subset of UK data (20 families) amongst a total 50 case study families who were involved across four countries. The study provides diverse examples of digital play supporting dimensions of children’s subjective wellbeing. However, children’s digital play choices and practices were influenced by diverse and often intersecting factors, most compellingly, by different deep interests, desires and needs, understood in the present study as ‘digital play drivers’. The findings offer an empirically grounded expansion of past ‘needs’ approaches and foreground the mediating role played by digital play drivers in the relationship between digital games and children’s subjective wellbeing. Implications for the children's digital game industry are discussed.