Playfulness causes meaningful wellbeing: an investigation of 125 global playful memories

The role of playfulness for wellbeing has a critical and diverse relationship. In past theoretical works, playfulness as a broad concept has been studied as causing broad wellbeing meanings. In contrast, most contemporary empirical approaches to playful wellbeing focus on a narrower construct and findings. This is, in part, because a comprehensive bottom-up approach to playfulness and its wellbeing associations for individuals has not delimited a broad empirical landscape for future study especially for diverse cultural groups. This work contributes to such a question by analyzing 125 highly playful experiences reported in a semi-structured interview had by individuals from 42 national backgrounds for their primary consequential meaning. Data was analyzed qualitatively based in grounded theory and supported by micro-phenomenological stabilization techniques. They report wellbeing as the essential meaningful consequence of playfulness with four subtypes: positive emotion, stress reduction, social bonding, and subjective learning. In addition, there were three degrees of impact described: transient states, environments, and personality change. These findings reinforce a critical role for play as a broad concept effecting specific forms of wellbeing in individuals’ lives across culture.