Scottish Parents' Survey 2021 - children and young people's play: results

Key Findings

This report presents the findings on children’s play from the Scottish Parents’ omnibus survey of 1,004 parents of children and young people aged 0-17 across Scotland, run by Ipsos MORI Scotland. The survey was conducted between 1 November and 2 December 2021.

The key findings from the survey were:

• 57% of parents reported that their child played outside on most days or every day during the past year. 3% of parents said their child never played outside.
• Parents of children aged 0-11 were more likely to say that their children played outside every day or most days than parents of young people aged 12-17.
• Of the parents whose children did play outside in the last year, 91% reported that their child had played in either their own garden or someone else’s during the past year. Other common locations were local open spaces (87%), play parks (79%) and local streets (45%). Parents with household incomes below £26,000; those living in the most deprived areas; and those with qualifications below degree level were less likely to say their children played in local open spaces.
• 48% of parents said that improvements to local play parks would encourage their children to play outside more. 40% said that if they felt more confident in the safety of the local area, this would encourage their children to play outside more.
• Parents of children aged 0-11 were more likely than parents of young people aged 12-17 to identify specific supporting factors that would encourage their children to play outside more, such as improvements to local play parks and safety in their local area. Parents of young people were more likely than parents of children to say nothing would encourage this.
• 87% of parents of children aged 0-11 said that family and friends were helpful sources of support when playing with their children. Half of parents (50%) said that Play, Talk, Read and/or Bookbug programmes were helpful support resources when playing with their children.
• 71% of parents of children aged 0-11 said that having more time would encourage or support them to play more with their children. 52% of parents said that access to more indoor and outdoor play spaces would encourage or support them to play more with their children. Men were more likely than women to say that having more time and access to more physical play resources would encourage or support them to play more with their children.