This qualitative data analysis employed both inductive and deductive inquiry to explore the understanding of play behaviour in adulthood among laypersons. By comparing the themes identified among lay players with existing expert theories and concepts related to wellbeing, children's play, and leisure, it was possible to assess the disparity between them and consider the need for alignment. The interview questions were designed to initially explore broad definitions of play behaviour and gradually delved into more specific aspects. The resulting themes, as presented in Table 1, encompassed play behaviours, play motivations, play lineage and origins, typology of player, barriers to play, and qualities of successful players. These findings have practical implications and informed the identification of subthemes within each broad theme. The results are presented in combination with the discussion, as follows.
Table 1
Thematic coding derived from the interview data.
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Main themes
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Sub-themes
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Play behaviours
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Play is specific to children
Play feels child-like
Defining features of adult play
Play as escape
Adult play behaviour is broad and subjective
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Motivation to play
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Positive affect
Engagement
Relationship building
Meaningful life
Achieving greater competency
Autonomy
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Lineage and origins
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Childhood restrictions on play
Adult consequences of childhood restrictions
Parental modelling of play
Parents’ intent of play
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Typology of player
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Playful parents
Parents not playful, but approving of play
Play reclaimed in adulthood
Longing for play
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Barriers to play in adulthood
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“Life” gets in the way
Expectations of social norms
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Observed qualities of the successful player
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Bringing play elements to duty performance
Limitations of blending play
Permission to play
Play as remedy
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Play Behaviours
Participants were asked to provide their definitions of play behaviour. Their responses generally aligned with features of true play as identified by experts, although their examples of true play did not necessarily align with their nominated criteria. The examples provided by participants encompassed Smilansky's (1968) four-sequence developmental model of play. These included functional play (e.g., Laughter Yoga, swimming, bushwalking, gardening, exploring nature, dancing, and sports), constructive play (e.g., art, craft, storytelling, or inventing), sociodramatic role play (e.g., CIT, sexual intimacy, volunteering with a charity, going to the movies, and participating in social groups), and games with rules (e.g., playing games, doing crosswords, jigsaws, or video gameplay). Notably, these categories can overlap to some extent, such as video gameplay being potentially constructive, sociodramatic, a game with rules, and functional (e.g., Wii games), depending on the context in which it was performed. Participants cited these behaviours as examples of their play behaviour.
Play was Childlike
When participants were asked about their perceptions of play, the dominant theme as expressed by 73% was that play was associated with children or was considered child-like behaviour. Participants described play as something children engaged in or as a behaviour they engaged in during childhood or with children as adults. One participant stated:
“When I think about play, I think open-ended. Like when I think about play being a kid, you create this universe where it’s cut off from the rest of reality … and you escape into it”.
Another retiree respondent described their entire life as one big game, emphasising the enjoyment and fun they found in various activities, such as going to lunch, coffee, meeting friends, watching sports, and going to the movies given that they no longer needed to go to work. These accounts suggested that play offered an escape from the burdens of adulthood into a more desirable state of consciousness, aligning with Katz's (1988) observation of play's transcendence. Thus, initial concepts of play were rooted in childhood experiences, where play provided an escape into an alternative and more desirable child-like state.
Distinctive Features of Adult Play
The four thematically dominant features of adult play that the participants identified were the experience of having fun, being engaging and freely chosen, while having playmate compatibility. Adult play was also described as a low-stakes activity that transported the player out of their current state, whether being mundane existence or negative affective state (e.g., stress), into an altered state of consciousness characterised as being immersive, rewarding, pleasurable, creative, and child-like. The suspension of real-life consequences of play enabled a sense of psychological safety. As one participant commented:
[in gameplay] you can win if you follow the rules because, in real life, you can follow all the rules, and God knows what is going to happen to you.
Further, the perception of tolerable risk in play was subjective; what might be an acceptable level of risk for one player might not be the same for another. For example, some participants enjoyed being the centre of attention, while others did not. Other reported risks included potential for criticism, rejection, embarrassment, injury, or litigation. Thus, the subjective experience of the player defined play in adulthood.
Interpersonal Rapport in Play
Playmate compatibility was also noted as a critical contextual requirement for successful play behaviour. Play created a sense of belonging, presence, and social connectivity. Play was also bounded by variable levels of rules, from being very loose and open-ended to highly structured and time limited. Play preferences were highly oriented around these factors, with, for example, more intellectual players preferring the latter and creative players expressing a preference for the former. In this regard, one participant was noted as saying:
“… if we sat down in … a big sand-play space with toys… I might be fine, but not everyone's going to be. We come from different spaces”.
Additionally, participant definitions suggested there needed to be a consensus between the players about what constituted the rules of play, including the degree of flexibility and re-negotiation that might be applied in their interpretation. When the rules of engagement become non-consensual, the play experience stopped.
The continuum of competitiveness among potential playmates also influenced play compatibility. Although competitiveness was identified as being contrary to true play (Brown & Vaughan, 2010), for those participants who identified as being competitive, it was still considered consistent with their preferred play style given their “competitive nature.” These participants reported that while ever their playmates’ level of competitiveness matched their own, the play was deemed enjoyable, but when it became mismatched, the play experience stopped. This theme of co-creative interplay between playmates while in rapport was a strongly defining feature of adult play in those instances of play with playmates.
Adult Play versus True Play
Adult play was somewhat different to true play. The concept of true play was derived from the most popularly cited defining features of children’s and animals’ play, according to expert theorists. However, in this sample the four thematically dominant features of adult play for the participants were the experience of pleasure, engagement, being freely chosen, and having playmate compatibility. While participants perceived their play as potentially encompassing a broad range of behaviours that had varying degrees of observable features that appeared to be play behaviours, the most important criterion that determined that the play threshold had been met, was the subjective experience of the player (i.e., I am playing).
Van Vleet and Feeney (2015) had cautioned that a single definition of play would inappropriately constrain it into a limited set of behaviours or scenarios that would potentially undermine empirical examination of the subject. However, the results of this study alluded to play in adulthood being so broadly defined that a great number of behaviours can still conform to its defining criteria, arguably without threat of inappropriate constraint.
Further, while the play examples offered did conform with the broad categories of Smilansky’s (1968) developmental stages of play in childhood (albeit only subtly at times), play in adulthood was typically similar but distinctive from child's play. Child's play was not described as "child-like" and does not necessarily serve as relief from responsibilities. Play has been considered the work of children (Paley, 2009), whereas play in adulthood often provides relief from work and seriousness. Furthermore, the participant-identified play behaviours (e.g., gardening) needed not be conducted in a manner deemed child-like. Therefore, adult play examples can coincide with the true play of children and animals while other examples diverge from it.
Play Motivation
Many of the participants’ descriptions of the benefits of play fit within Seligman’s (2011) PERMA model and Deci and Ryan’s (2004) self-determination theory. All the examples given were oriented around play being a means to fulfill, primarily, higher-order needs. Still, play was also utilised to alleviate lower-order needs, such as stress relief.
Positive Affect
Play was predominately seen as a means of experiencing positive affect. Positive affect (described by participants as “happiness,” “joy,” “fun,” and “pleasure”) was generated by play. Play was noted to reduce negative affect directly through enjoyment and light-heartedness, and indirectly by the types of play activities. (e.g., playing destructive video games to vent anger safely). Thereby play offered an escape from mundane or stressful responsibilities, in addition to fulfilling a sense of success, akin to Gee’s (2005) observed “hero” status attainment.
These positive effects lingered beyond the direct play experience. One participant observed that their daily practice of Laughter Yoga had resulted in a kind of resilience that buffered them from stress effects, stating:
Things I used to stress out about before, who cares, no stress. If I run out of milk, who cares, I'll drink tea without milk.
The positive effects of play were reported by these participants to extend beyond the play itself, making life more manageable and sustainable. This result was consistent with Fredrickson and Joiner’s (2002) research which demonstrated the upward spiral of coping and wellbeing afforded through positive affect. The combined immediate and after-effects of play behaviour culminated in play being valued by many participants as a deliberate act of self-care, supportive of their mental and physical wellbeing, the extended absence of which was further noted to be conducive to mental and physical illness.
Engagement
Engagement in well-practiced play led to greater levels of flow and uplifting experiences, also referred to as an altered state of consciousness. This theme was notable amongst participants (n = 4) who mentioned at various stages in all groups the desire to get lost in their chosen play behaviours, such as effortlessly playing the perfect piano piece. However, it was noted by some participants (n = 6) that some activities that elicited flow states were not initially rewarding given the difficulty and the frustration that goes along with the feeling of incompetence experienced while learning the new task (e.g., learning a new game or piano music). Nevertheless, entering a state of engagement with play satisfied the drive to experience an altered state of consciousness (Prescott, 1989).
Relationships
Play was also strongly motivated to build and maintain social relationships. All the participants identified play behaviours oriented around some critical element of social relating, such as exercising, sharing a joke, laughing, “meshing” with teammates, dressing up in costume for community volunteer events, playing with kids, and playing cards or board games. For example, one interviewee stated:
Playing cards is a good excuse to have friends around.
On that note, another participant suggested that the real purpose of playing a game with others is to spend time with people laughing, not winning or losing. Play was also identified as offering an opportunity to increase community engagement, in addition to building light social connections through the experience of reciprocal and mutual child-like enjoyment without having to be responsible for the other beyond keeping a safe space to play. In contrast, play was also noted to deepen emotional bonds, such as intimacy between partners in other instances.
Life Meaning
When asked what life would be like if they were not allowed to play anymore, 77% (n = 20) of the participants stated variations on the theme that “life would not be worth living,” life would be “a living death,” and that it would be “a return to mental illness.” Only two participants stated that they would adapt by vicariously enjoying the play of others. Another participant acknowledged that their work responsibilities had become so overwhelming that they were suffering mentally and physically. As such, they were also struggling to engage in the play process of CIT and in being playful generally. This question revealed the strong theme that play made life worth living.
Achievement
The final motivation associated with the PERMA model (Seligman, 2012) – Achievement – was seen as the types of goals that could be achieved through play, although goals were non-competitive primarily (e.g., playing with some competence) rather than specifically winning something (e.g., scoring more points than their opponent). Participants described play as a means of learning and discovering, in addition to being a means of enhancing their skills of movement, gameplay, and creative expression. Participants also expressed appreciation for the achievements of others through gameplay, such as their opponent winning through extraordinary luck or skill. Play was respected as a means of achieving skill development for both the self and others.
Autonomy
Participants also reported being motivated to play to meet their psychological needs for autonomy, as per Deci and Ryan’s (2004) self-determination theory. Autonomy was reportedly achieved by freedom of choice, freedom from inhibition, being self-directed and honest in their self-expression, rather than being bound by someone else’s rules and expectations.
Lineage and Origins
Parental standards of playfulness or seriousness had a significant influence on the participants in this study. Parents transmitted their views on the acceptability of play and work to their children, which continued to shape their attitudes towards play in adulthood. In alignment with other research findings (e.g., Dixon et al., 2008; Shen et al., 2017), when parents actively modelled, encouraged, and interacted with play, the transition to adulthood was reportedly smoother, and the need to reclaim play later in life was not necessary.
Childhood Restrictions on Play
Themes associated with adverse play experiences during childhood were identified. Absent parents, either due to discord, death, illness, or long working hours, often resulted in self-directed and unsupervised play characterised by high levels of adventure and risk-taking, such as exploring abandoned buildings, often in groups of other children from their neighbourhood. Parents were also often described as serious and work-oriented individuals who opposed their child's play preferences, criticising their choices and redirecting them towards more "work-like" activities. Older participants who grew up during times of war experienced limited access to play as they left school early to assist their mothers. Children turned to solitary play or creative expression where parents were fearful for their child (due to illness or bullying). Therefore, the conditions described by participants that were opposed to child play behaviour were substantially influenced by parental variables, in addition to other underlying factors like personal health, and social limitations.
Adult Consequences of Childhood Restrictions
The consequences of parental restrictions or inattention to play during childhood manifested in difficulties engaging in true play behaviour and poorer mental health in adulthood. Individuals oriented their lives around seriousness and work values, leaving little to no time for genuine play. Unhealthy behaviours, such as excessive alcohol consumption or drug use, emerged as substitutes for true play. Despite prioritising work values, participants often felt unfulfilled and lacked the happiness they expected. This result was consistent with other quantitative research which found a link between mental illness and parental inhibition of playtime (e.g., McKinney & Power, 2012; Steinberg et al., 1994). One participant who had come to reclaim play in later life stated:
I thought it's about time I do things for myself and start taking care of myself.
For these participants, play behaviour was a deliberate choice, actively cultivated with varying degrees of success as a matter of remedial health.
Parental Modelling of Play
More facilitative conditions of play experience were less common than those in which play was restricted, according to participants’ self-reports. Some participants reported their parents to be supportive playmates who embraced their suggestions and actively engaged in play activities. These participants reported a continuous play history, uninterrupted from childhood to adulthood. For example, one participant offered:
“Some people never stop playing - we play today. I never stopped playing from childhood to retirement”.
Participants also noted that playing with parents could occur in many different places and that they still liked to play in the same places, such as the beach, playing board games, and playing more physical or competitive games, like badminton or cricket. Other participants (n = 4) suggested that they inherited their parent’s silliness and sense of humour, including the lack thereof. For those participants who had come to reclaim play in adulthood, re-engaging in play behaviour was in accord with their parents’ closest semblance of play behaviour, such as arts and craft activities for the adult child of the homemaker or joining a social club for the adult child of the community volunteer. Play qualities like preferences, competitiveness, and humour were readily transmitted from parent to child.
Parents’ Intent of Play
Parental intent of play, such as an opportunity to socialise and to be in support of their children, was also perceived by the participants. Even if parents themselves were not naturally playful individuals, numerous parents were still observed to have shown high levels of support for their children's play activities. This support manifested in various ways, such as attending their sports games, allowing dedicated playtime, and providing resources that aligned with their child's interests. Participants who experienced this kind of parental support tended to develop strong relationships with their parents while maintaining their play identities into adulthood.
Further, participants who had their own play identity reinforced by their parents' approval were also inclined to develop a work identity like that of their parents. These participants commonly described transitioning into an adult identity where play behaviours, often having some work-related qualities (e.g., sport, playing in a band, inventing), were prioritised alongside their working lives. Parents’ play behaviours and attitudes were described by all participants as having a significant influence upon the evolving play identity of each of them.
Typology of Players
Presenting play preferences in adulthood were rooted in participants’ childhood experience of play. This pattern of influence can be applied to a prototype typology of adult players based primarily upon the play behaviours and attitudes of their parents and the other adverse and advantageous young life conditions. This analysis found that Natural Players (with playful parents) and Approved Players (with play-supportive parents) continued an unbroken play timeline from childhood. The former typically engaged in playful work; and the latter engaged in play that was more compartmentalised into work-like activities (e.g., play in sporting teams, musical activities, etc.). These player types reported being advantaged in adulthood by their well-developed play-identities, an outcome consistent with Shen et al.’s (2017) research linking parental playfulness with adult playfulness and increased adaptability.
The other player types reportedly lacked the support of childhood play from their parents. Remedial Players choose to reclaim their play lives in adulthood as a strategic response to factors such as declining health, lack of social connection, and suppressed creativity. Play preferences that were accessed in play reclamation often coincided with the most play-like behaviours of their parents (e.g., swimming, partying, crafts, etc). Alternatively, iPlayers used new technologies to engage in play with some continuity from childhood into adulthood, despite having contended with parental disapproval for their play preference. Undeveloped Players, as identified by retrospective analysis from the Remedial Players, expressed a longing for play but had not overcome their constraints to engage in play fully. The Non-Player type, although not represented in the sample, was described as individuals who were opposed to all forms of play. A decision tree to help determine player typology is outlined in Fig. 1.
Barriers to Play in Adulthood
When participants were asked what got in the way of their play, the most prevalent
response was “Life” (n = 17). This was a structural constraint representative of limited opportunities for play, including fulfilling obligations to others (e.g., work attendance, caring for family members, commuting) and themselves (e.g., hygiene, food preparation). Limited time and financial constraints, as well as a lack of interest or play partners, were also identified as barriers. Interestingly, certain aspects of play itself could be seen as obstacles, such as excessive or restrictive rules, fear of judgment or embarrassment, and the potential for play to exacerbate distress in stressful situations. One participant in a self-described state of stress and overwhelm stated:
If I sit down and play now, sometimes it can make me feel worse.
These circumstances highlighted the effort and energy required for play when responsibilities and inhibitions could not be easily set aside.
Therefore, play behaviour operated within a hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1987), whereby survival matters (i.e., “Life”) took priority over play. This outcome was indicative of the notion that play was associated with thriving, given that it is more likely to be engaged in when survival needs are satisfied (Bateson, 2014; Held & Špinka, 2011, Veenhoven, 2009).
Social Norms
Social norms surrounding adult play behaviour revealed participants' conflicting beliefs and values regarding the encouragement or discouragement of play in adulthood. Norms that discouraged play included societal expectations of sensible and serious adult behaviour, emphasis on work as the primary use of time, consumerism, personal standards, and concerns about others' opinions. In contrast, norms that promoted adult play were influenced by participants' family backgrounds, age-related acceptability of play (e.g., retirement), and personal autonomy in directing one's actions.
Participants acknowledged that sometimes the activities they perceived they had to do (i.e., structural barriers) lacked legitimacy. For example, the prioritisation of the perceived structural barriers (e.g., washing the dishes) over playtime, was often the secondary by-product of intrapersonal barriers (e.g., fear of condemnation in the event of being discovered playing with dirty dishes in the sink). These participants reported that they frequently had to contend with such intrapersonal constraints, where perceived fears policed them internally to conform to what constituted socially acceptable behaviour. This was consistent with Deterding’s (2018) observations regarding the socialisation of responsible adults and the risk of embarrassment should they be found to be transgressing social expectations through unsanctioned play. As per Deci and Ryan’s (2004) self-determination theory, the fulfilment of one need (e.g., relatedness) could result in the thwarting of another (e.g., autonomy).
Participants reported two key strategies for overcoming these constraints. First, they overcame some intrapersonal constraints through actively granting themselves permission to do so. Adjusting beliefs regarding what they “should” do with their time and energy might enable a participant to prioritise their need for play over their need for social approval. Second, participants identified the threat of social disapproval could be ameliorated by choosing playmates and forming group identities based on play preference compatibility, as was previously suggested by Deterding (2018) and Schwarz and Braff (2012). Selectivity in playmates helped normalise play preferences and reduced the risk of emotional disturbance during play expression. Therefore, these adult players took personal responsibility, in what Crawford et al. (1991) nominated as a force of will, for shaping their play identity to overcome the shared societal expectations that discouraged play.
Observed Qualities of the Successful Player
Successful players demonstrated the ability to integrate play elements into obligatory tasks. This was reported by players to have involved a conscious and deliberate intent to approach life with a playful mindset. Examples included singing and laughing while washing dishes with a partner, riding on a shopping trolley during grocery shopping, finger painting on a mirror with shaving cream while shaving or finding joy in the details of wood grain while renovating. The incorporation of play into work-like activities alleviated the burden of responsibility and seriousness, thereby, infusing life with greater enthusiasm and energy. On this, one participant stated:
You have to re-evaluate your relationship with the difference between work and play because it becomes so much drudgery otherwise. You have no choice but to make it play in one way or another.
For these participants, play was reported to be critical to making their lives manageable. Some participants recognised that some work did not suit play, however, such as bookkeeping or contract writing. Nonetheless, the ability to intertwine play with work was seen as a hallmark of adept players. This interweaving was partly consistent with Gray’s (2009) suggestion that play can be embedded in the activities of productive adult life as opposed to the kind of freestanding play in which children engage.
However, players did immerse themselves in the world of freestanding play occasionally. Participants routinely described their process of entirely putting aside the mundane duties of daily life to engage fully in play, such as sitting down to play a game of mah-jong with a friend, attending a CIT or Laughter Yoga group, or engaging in playful sexual intimacy. These results affirmed that adults could experience true play, but they typically play differently from children. Further, the most successful adult players can direct their play behaviour in variable child-like degrees whenever and wherever they need as a means of increasing their resilience and wellbeing.
Permission to Play
As self-identified players, the participants were observed to exercise their ability to choose (i.e., autonomy) frequently. They emphasised the importance of willingness, freedom, and choice, with a recurring theme of granting themselves permission to play. Most participants (n = 23) highlighted the significance of this mindset, stating that willingness was essential when engaging in play. For instance, one participant mentioned giving themselves permission to set aside busyness to play with their child, resulting in the reward of a deepening of their parent-child relationship.
However, the granting of play permission was also influenced by contextual factors. Participants perceived having children or being of retirement age as facilitating permission to play. This is an example of what Deterding (2018) referred to as an alibi to play, whereby play behaviour in adulthood is deemed socially acceptable if it being conducted in the fulfillment of one’s social responsibilities, such as caregiving of a child. In the absence of these plausible justifications for open and uninhibited play, a high degree of mental resilience and creativity was required to overcome self-consciousness and fear of judgment. As one participant succinctly expressed:
We are taught that adult play is structured like golf and wear the right clothes and do the right stuff but sometimes you just want to roll down a hill.
Some participants (n = 6) had reclaimed play in adulthood after becoming disillusioned with the pursuit of societal markers of success, such as material possessions and prestigious jobs. They recognised the negative impact of conforming to social expectations on their overall quality of life prior to retirement, and consequently, they rejected the norms by which they were previously bound. Other participants (n = 6) expressed a desire to sing or engage in parlour games but only in specific circumstances, such as in a group, when not being the centre of attention, or with trusted individuals. Therefore, the granting of permission to play was a subjective decision influenced by the analysis of perceived risks.
Practical Implications
Play Illiteracy
The existence of social norms surrounding play has led to a form of play illiteracy among adults. While participants in this study were adept at identifying the essential elements of true play when asked to define it, the concept of play became ambiguous when they were prompted to offer specific examples. Further, the dominant emerging theme was play being associated with children. Play examples also often aligned more closely with traditional leisure activities, such as gardening, walking the dog, or going to the theatre. When participants were asked to generate examples of play, their responses were limited, despite having engaged in a detailed discussion of play examples prior. The examples provided were primarily related to the specific play types for which the adult players identified preferences, such as sports, Laughter Yoga, CIT, card and board games, or video gaming. Relatively few new ideas were generated, suggesting a lack of diverse perspectives on play beyond their personal experiences.
This disparity between the definition and examples of play does not imply that the adult players were incorrect in their propositions. Rather, it highlighted the lack of a well-established shared understanding of play in adulthood within the culture they operated in. Adult play appeared to be a subjective process that operated outside of commonly agreed-upon behavioural definitions. This lack of shared understanding may have led to a risk management approach, where individuals were cautious about the potential for negative consequences. Shen et al.’s (2017) playfulness and adaptability research also referred to the evolutionary cost of play relating to risk of injury, vulnerability to harm from predators, and the loss of time that would otherwise be devoted to acquiring food. Despite this underlying expressed fear, the strong appreciation for play was easily discernible; however, the discourse around play remained limited.
Play Discourse
A new discourse to describe adult play may be required to overcome this apparent play illiteracy. This suggestion is aligned with Devi’s (2022) research examining the limitations of competence observed in primary caregivers playing with their children, whereby she concluded that it was imperative to develop a pedagogy of play to help adults be more effective playmates with their children. The player typology goes some way towards these complementary goals.
Other descriptors can build upon adult play lexicon to inform a shared understanding of play discourse. One component is that of play lineage, which could include disrupted versus continuous, player-parents versus non-player parents, interactive play versus non-interactive, attentive versus neglectful, and encouraging versus discouraging. Types of play preferences might include competitive versus non-competitive, high risk versus low risk, internal versus external, dedicated versus casual, concrete versus conceptual, and intellectual versus physical. Play discourse regarding intended purpose could include discrete versus integrated, decreased tension versus increased energy, self-care versus self-harm, non-ordinary states versus grounding, and serious versus silly. These dimensions provide a more nuanced and informative perspective, which can contribute to the development of play literacy among adults.
Furthermore, it is important to reconsider the terminology used to describe adult play. Terms like "true play" and "distorted play" may threaten to invalidate certain adult player behaviours that deviate from strict definitions of play. Also, delegating adult play to “playfulness” is unnecessarily limiting. Many adult player behaviours, although differing from traditional play definitions, such as engaging in competitive play or approaching work tasks playfully, still fall within the realm of play. Terms like "adult play" or "mature play" acknowledge that adult play behaviour has adapted to the demands of adult life, without discrediting the players’ attempts based on inconsistencies with traditional play definitions. Such terminology might encourage and accommodate diverse adult-like play behaviours, rather than undermine attempts at adult play. Establishing a new discourse and terminology, along with incorporating additional descriptors, can contribute to overcoming play illiteracy among adults and foster a greater understanding and appreciation of adult play.
Future Research
Future research should focus on further exploring and refining the player typology identified in this study. Additionally, the development of play discourse and interventions aimed at enhancing play literacy among adults, such as play literacy classes, should be investigated. Most participants in this study expressed interest in participating in such groups, highlighting the potential effectiveness of these interventions.
Furthermore, it would be valuable to investigate the developmental benefits of play in adulthood. While the developmental benefits of play in childhood are well-established, the potential for adults to continue developing motor skills, imagination, and social skills through play warrants exploration. Additionally, there may be other unique developmental advantages that are specific to adult play, which have yet to be recognised and studied.
Limitations and Strengths
This study benefited from a balanced gender representation and diverse groups of players. However, the use of a convenience sample is a notable limitation. Future research should aim to include a more representative sample of player types, including individuals with diverse play preferences such as live-action role players and cosplayers. Additionally, including participants with distorted styles of play behaviours, as well as those who do not identify as players, would contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of adult play. Therefore, future research should focus on expanding the player typology, developing play discourse and interventions, exploring the developmental benefits of adult play, and addressing the limitations of this study through more diverse and representative samples. These advancements will contribute to a more comprehensive theory of adult play and its implications.