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Abstract

Rates of reported childhood mental health difficulties have risen markedly in recent years, prompting a policy emphasis on early identification and rapid referral to clinical services. While such responses are vital for acute and complex presentations, there is growing concern that they may contribute to an over-pathologising of normative developmental experiences. Everyday challenges that once functioned as opportunities to build resilience are increasingly framed as early symptoms of mental disorder. This risks undermining children’s ability to cope adaptively with adversity, inadvertently fostering reliance on external intervention.

Since its inception in 2012, Sporting Communities CIC has been embedded in schools and neighbourhoods, across the UK delivering Play and wellbeing interventions, observing first-hand the steady decline in children’s mental health and wellbeing due to the rapid increase of referrals into our services. Our practice has consistently shown that what works is not always a new invention but often a drawing upon timeless insights—where the past informs the future—and enabling children to transform setbacks into solutions.

This paper proposes a Play-Based Stoic Intervention (PBSI) for use in primary education, youth work, and playwork practice. PBSI integrates the philosophical principles of classical Stoicism with the developmental affordances of play opportunities. Stoicism’s core practices—distinguishing between what is and is not within one’s control, reframing adversity as opportunity, and adopting broader perspectives—align closely with evidence-based models of resilience and emotional regulation. Play, as theorised by Vygotsky (1978), Sutton-Smith (1997), and Pellegrini and Smith (1998), provides a safe, symbolic, and socially rich arena for children to rehearse coping strategies, negotiate unpredictability, and engage in perspective-taking.

Despite parallel literatures on play, resilience, and Stoicism, little work has explicitly explored their integration as a preventive pedagogy for children. This paper addresses that gap by developing and illustrating a Play-Based Stoic Intervention (PBSI).

By merging these domains, PBSI offers a preventive mental health approach that is developmentally appropriate, culturally adaptable, and economically viable. It can be embedded seamlessly into classrooms, community play schemes, and youth provision. This paper argues that embedding philosophical reflection within play can cultivate durable emotional regulation skills, helping to reframe common childhood challenges as formative experiences rather than precursors to pathology. The model aims to move educational, youth, and community practice away from reactive, diagnosis-driven interventions towards proactive, strength-based approaches rooted in lived practice.

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