Engaging Parents About the Importance of Play: The Impact of a Brief, Arts‐Informed Community Presentation

• Published date: 01 April 2020
• Author: Kevin Rathunde,Russell Isabella
• Date: 01 April 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12422

K R R IUniversity of Utah

Engaging Parents About the Importance of Play:

The Impact of a Brief, Arts-Informed

Community Presentation

Objective: This study evaluated the effective-

ness of an arts-informed approachto parent edu-

cation using a 50-minute, arts-informed parent

education presentation that integrated the cre-

ative arts (e.g., lm, photography, music, dance,

and design). The focus of the arts-informed pro-

gram was to communicate more effectivelyabout

the importance of play for child and adult devel-

opment.

Background: Arts-informed or arts-based edu-

cational approaches have been found useful

for science outreach because of their poten-

tial to enhance affective engagement with infor-

mation. This raises the question of whether

arts-informed methods could be used to engage

and inform parents on research topics relevant

for the family.

Method: The study used analysis of covari-

ance and a pretest–posttest control groupdesign

(N=97).

Results: One month after attending the

arts-informed presentation, parents of children

in early childhood reported greater knowledge

about play, support for play, and time spent

playing with their child and that their chil-

dren engaged in more free play. Parents also

reported an increase in their amount of ow

Department of Family and Consumer Studies, University

of Utah, 225 S. 1400 E. AEB 228, Salt Lake City, UT

84112-0080 (rathunde@fcs.utah.edu).

KeyWords: arts-informed research,community engagement,

parent education, play.

experience (i.e., states of enjoyable absorption),

although they did not report changes in time

spent engaging in leisure play.

Conclusion: These ndings are discussed in

terms of the utility of arts-informed approaches

for family researchers interested in science out-

reach and community engagement as well as

using the arts to enhance parents’ affective

engagement with information about play.

As family researchers with a strong interest

in community outreach, the authors asked the

following question that broadly frames this

study: “How can we create a brief, yet engaging,

presentation for parents that effectively com-

municates important ideas about child and adult

development?” To answer this question, we

looked to an emerging trend in science outreach

and community engagement that leverages

the creative arts to communicate about impor-

tant scientic research (Leavy, 2018; Lesen,

Rogan, & Blum, 2016; Mackh, 2015; Rathunde

& Isabella, 2019). Such “arts-informed” or

arts-based educational approaches are thought

to be useful for science outreach because of their

potential to enhance affective engagement with

information more effectively than traditional

didactic approaches (Friedman, 2013; Kokkos,

2010). To examine whether arts-informed meth-

ods could be used to engage and inform parents

on any number of research topics relevant for the

family, a program focused on the importance of

play was developed. This presentation provided

Family Relations 69 (April 2020): 351–364351

DOI:10.1111/fare.12422