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Playwork is a recognised profession in the United Kingdom (UK) and is currently a growing area of interest internationally. However, debates about the nature and purpose of playwork have raged in the playwork field since the profession was invented in the early adventure playgrounds. This study is the first to capture data about what the now international playwork workforce understands to be the purpose of playwork. The International Playwork Census (IPC) was an online survey which asked participants from 19 different countries about their knowledge and experience of playwork. This paper reports on one question from the IPC: what is the purpose of playwork? A thematic analysis was undertaken from 193 responses on what was considered "the purpose of playwork" and three themes emerged: Facilitate and Provide for children's play; Support and Advocate. This paper describes how these three themes reflect both the historical change in understandings of the purpose of playwork and how different understandings of playwork are developed through the experience of practitioners working in range of different contexts.

This study aimed to obtain implications on childrearing and childcare practices for achieving children's well-being through analyzing factors predicting children's well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic in eight Asian countries. We primarily focused on "resilience," the ability to cope with and recover from difficult situations, which had been confirmed from previous studies as a positive factor towards children's development in the context of hardships. We also chose other potential predictors referring to Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, including mothers' concerns about COVID-19, household income, number of playmates, support from childcare facilities/schools, family environments, and children's lifestyles, and examined how these predictor variables predict children's well-being. We found that children's resilience strongly predicted their well-being, which was common in all eight countries. Family factors and children's daily life factors were also associated with children's well-being. The country-specific analysis also indicated the importance of support from childcare facilities/schools on well-being. Well-being and resilience are both psychological constructs and often studied as important indicators of child health. Resilience has been spot-lighted as an effective protective factor for children experiencing adversities such as the COVID-19 pandemic. We have found that resilience was the strongest predictor of well-being among other factors even during the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]