GIOCO
GIOCO (engl. PLAY) is a project with children, adolescents and parents in Italian-speaking Switzerland conducted between 2024 and 2027.
Play is crucial for the socio-emotional, cognitive and physical development of children and adolescents. In the transition from childhood to adolescence, offline play, such as active play on playgrounds, is increasingly substituted by more sedentary play such as playing board games and video gaming. In addition, today's children are the first generation to grow up with what can be termed ‘hybrid’ play in the form of toys connected to the internet and commanded remotely.
In light of these recent trends, the project "The role of play in socio-emotional, cognitive and physical functioning among school-aged children and adolescents: A mixed-methods study" (Italian: Gioco Online, Ibrido e Offline: Sviluppi e ruolo nel funzionamento socio-emotivo e cognitivo-fisico dei giovani), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, aims to explore how school-aged children and adolescents play today and how play is linked to their socio-emotional, cognitive and physical development.
This 4-year project uses a mixed-methods design: Study 1 encompasses a qualitative focus-group study to explore recent trends in offline, hybrid, and online play among school-aged children and adolescents, motivations for play, and to what extent the different forms of play are guided by adults. Study 2 comprises a deductive-inductive content analysis of categorizations of play available in the scientific and grey literature and based on insights from the focus groups to create a holistic map of offline, hybrid, and online play. Study 3 includes a longitudinal study in which an online questionnaire will be administered three times over two years to investigate the reciprocal relationship between offline, hybrid, and online play and socio-emotional, cognitive and physical functioning in children and adolescents, taking into consideration personal and contextual factors to explain potential disparities. Study 4 consists of an evidence collection to formulate recommendations and co-creation workshops that bring together children, adolescents, parents, and educators to jointly design an intervention to promote age-appropriate leisure play which is beneficial for socio-emotional, cognitive and physical development during the early developmental years.
Principal Investigator
Postdoctoral Researcher
PhD Students
Advisory Board
Team GIOCO is accompanied by Francesco Vanetta and a group of experts and representatives from the school, research and clinical setting, and parents. LINK
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Publications and Presentations GIOCO
Pedroni, G., Melotto, M., Pedroni, E. Mayen, S., & Camerini, A. L. (2026) Development and validation of the CAPPAC scale to measure multidimensional play in children and adolescents. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-43894-x
Presentations
Melotto, M., Petrocchi, S., & Camerini, A. L. (2026) Individual Differences in Attachment–Sensitivity Profiles: Implications of Play for Empathy and Peer Relationship Quality, Poster presentation at the 40th Annual Conference of the European Health Psychology Society, 1-4 September 2026, Pafos, Cyprus.
Pedroni, G., & Camerini, A. L. (2026) Play and Lifestyle: Exploring the associations between analog and digital play and lifestyle behaviors in adolescents in Switzerland, Poster presentation at the Swiss Public Health Conference, 2-3 September 2026, Lucerne, Switzerland.
Melotto, M., Petrocchi, S., & Camerini, A. L. (2026) Positive Immersive Play Supports Empathy and Peer Relationships in Adolescence, Especially Under Lower Attachment Security, Oral presentation at the International Attachment Conference, 7-9 July 2026, Leuven, Belgium.
Mayen, S., Melotto, M., & Camerini, A. L. (2026) Multidimensional play perceptions and children’s and adolescents’ self-determination needs in analogue and digital play: An observational study in Switzerland, Oral presentation at the 9th Self-Determination Theory Conference, 30 June-3 July 2026, Geneva, Switzerland.
Pedroni, G., Melotto, M., Mayen, S., Nguyen-Danse, A., Van Hove, F., Jochim, M., Waller, G., Bediou, B., & Camerini, A. L. (2025) Play and mental health: Exploring measurement approaches in longitudinal research with children and adolescents in the Swiss context, Panel at the Swiss Public Health Conference, 10-11 September 2025, Lugano, Switzerland.
Pedroni, G., Melotto, M., & Camerini, A. L. (2025) Unlocking Play Potential: A Systematic Review on the Relationship between Play and Cognitive and Physical Functioning in Children and Adolescents, Oral presentation at the 75th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, 12-16 June 2025, Denver, Colorado, USA. (Top Student-led paper in the Instructional and Developmental Communication Division)
Melotto, M., Pedroni, G., & Camerini, A. L. (2025) A Systematic Review of the association between Gaming Addiction and Emotional Cognition in Children’s and Adolescents’ Development, Oral presentation at the 75th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, 12-16 June 2025, Denver, Colorado, USA.
Melotto, M., Pedroni, G., & Camerini, A. L. (2025) A Focus Group Study of Children’s and Adolescents’ Motivations, Preferences, Opportunities, and Barriers in Analog, Hybrid, and Digital Play, Oral presentation at the 75th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, 12-16 June 2025, Denver, Colorado, USA.
Melotto, M., Pedroni, G., & Camerini, A. L. (2025) Exploring the Relationship between Play Activities and Emotional Cognition: A Systematic Review across Developmental Stages, Poster presentation at the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) Biennial Meeting, 1-3 May 2025, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
