A study carried out by the LEGO Group shows that there is less play in German households. In every third family, the daily playing time is less than 43 minutes. Almost 13.000 parents and children between the ages of five and twelve in Europe, North America and Asia were asked about games - including 1.024 parents and 414 children from Germany.
Not enough time to play
A study by the LEGO Group shows that many German families do not have time to play. And this despite the fact that parents in Germany agree that play makes a decisive contribution to children's development and satisfaction.
Parental satisfaction - and with it the feeling of happiness in the family as a whole - increases through playing moments together. Nevertheless, around four out of ten of the more than 1.000 parents surveyed stated that they invest too little time in playing with their children (37 percent) and that their free time was insufficient to play (42 percent).
Almost every second parent (48 percent) says they can easily be distracted from playing with the children by smartphones, e-mails or everyday household chores. The result: In every third family in Germany, less than five hours per week are played together. Particularly dramatic: eleven percent of parents even play less than two hours a week with their children.
LEGO GmbH presented these study results at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg. As part of the "LEGO Play Well Report", the LEGO Group surveyed 1.024 parents and 414 children from Germany.
The LEGO Play Well Report explores the perspectives of Parents and children on the advantages of playing together in the family, children's preferences when playing, future skills, digital safety for children and learning through play. Unless otherwise stated, all results of the report come from a total of 9.249 parents with children between the ages of 1,5 and 3.723 and from 2018 children between the ages of five and twelve who lived between February and March 20 in a XNUMX-minute quantitative Online polls in nine countries (China, Denmark, France, Germany, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Great Britain and the USA) were interviewed.
Widening the digital divide
In addition to lack of time and everyday distractions, the report reveals other hurdles for a carefree gaming experience for families in Germany. Family games are particularly affected by the digital divide between parents and children: While 41 percent of the parents surveyed doubt that digital games are creative and question the positive influence this type of game has on family life, both digital and haptic play fun is available to children very popular. Parents, on the other hand, strongly separate the various forms of play and mainly prefer non-digital forms of play for their children.
“Children see the digital and physical worlds as one and are at the forefront of a new world of play that we call 'Fluid Play'. Reality, children's imagination and digital experiences merge into one world".
“For children, play is just play. We adults can learn that from them.”
Rebecca Snell, Senior Marketing Director at LEGO GmbH
Playing hours together are extremely important for family happiness. The LEGO Group's report shows a clear connection between playing time together and general satisfaction within families.
According to the parents surveyed, if the time spent playing games falls below five hours per week, this has an impact on the feeling of happiness in the family: only 71 percent then describe themselves as happy. This is in stark contrast to families who invest more time in playing together - here the surveyed satisfaction rate is 87 percent.
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