Helen F Dodd
Biographic Data
| ID | 1741901 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Helen F Dodd |
| GIVEN NAMES | Helen F |
| FAMILY NAME | Dodd |
| SIGNATURE | DODD H F |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Exeter |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1446-5338 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Early outdoor play predicts trajectories of child mental health in a population‐based cohort
BACKGROUND: Outdoor play may offer developmental opportunities that support good mental health. Cross-sectional data indicate that more outdoor play is associated with better mental health, particularly internalising problems (e.g. anxiety and depression), but longitudinal research is lacking. We used a longitudinal cohort dataset to evaluate whether outdoor play at 2-4 years predicted children's mental health trajectories into middle childhood. …
Parent‐led CBT delivered via online and telephone support alongside usual school practice versus usual school practice only for young children identified as at risk for anxiety disorders through scree…
BACKGROUND: Providing accessible CBT for young children identified as at risk for anxiety disorders through screening in schools could reduce later problems. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of parent-led CBT delivered via online and telephone call support alongside usual school provision, compared to usual school provision only for young children identified through screening as having at least one risk. METHODS: We conducted a prag…
Parents Perceptions of Play in School: Findings From the British Children's Play Survey
Using data from the British Children's Play Survey, we aimed to characterise parents’ perception of play in school and to examine to what extent perceptions were accounted for by socio‐demographic factors, geographic factors, and parents’ attitudes towards risk in play and protection from injury. Participants were 1919 parents (54% female) of children aged 5–11 years living in Britain. Overall, parents had positive perceptions about the need for …
The association between park visits, outdoor play and child social-emotional competency in a multi-ethnic, urban cohort
34 % of children do not play outdoors on school days; 20 % don’t play outdoors on weekends. • Outdoor play was associated with improved child social-emotional competency. • Stratification showed associations varied by ethnicity and weekday / weekend use. • Ethnic origin groups gained benefits of outdoor play at different times of the week. • Providing safe local places for children’s play may improve their mental health. Increased access to green…
A scoping review of methods and measures used to capture children's play during school breaktimes
Play is linked to healthy child development and is recognised in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.School breaktimes provide regular opportunities for children to play, and as such, they have been the context of a large and interdisciplinary body of research on play.Play research has diverse aims and cuts across many academic disciplines, resulting in a wide range of methods and measurement tools being used in research to capture child…
Recreational Fear Across Childhood. A Cross-Sectional Study of Scary Activities that Children Enjoy
This study investigated the prevalence of children's engagement in recreational fear activities - i.e., playful engagement with scary stimuli where both fear and enjoyment are experienced. A detailed survey of 1,600 parents/caregivers (67% female) of children aged 1-17 years (50% female) asked about their child's enjoyment of recreational fear activities across 19 activity categories, as well as with whom, where and how often they engage in these…
Intolerance of uncertainty heightens negative emotional states and dampens positive emotional states
Individuals high in self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) tend to view uncertainty as unbearable and stressful. Notably, IU is transdiagnostic, and high levels of IU are observed across many different emotional disorders (e.g., anxiety, depression). Research has primarily focused on how IU evokes and modulates emotional states such as fear and anxiety. However, recent research suggests that IU may have relevance for a broader range of emo…
Adventurous play in schools: The parent perspective
Adventurous play (play that is exciting and thrilling, where children take age‐appropriate risks, for example climbing trees and jumping from rocks) is increasingly being recognised as beneficial for child health and development. Despite this, children's opportunities for and engagement in this type of play have declined in recent decades. Break times in schools may provide an ideal opportunity to provide adventurous play opportunities for all ch…
Adventurous play for a healthy childhood: Facilitators and barriers identified by parents in Britain
The findings of this research support the identification of key targets for those working with parents to improve children's adventurous play opportunities and ultimately their physical and mental health. Future research should seek to design and tailor interventions by asking parents about the support they would value
Parent perceived barriers and facilitators of children’s adventurous play in Britain: A framework analysis
Improved understanding of what influences parent perceptions of adventurous play can inform public health interventions designed to improve children's opportunities for and engagement in adventurous play, with a view to promote children's physical and mental health
Child’s Play: Examining the Association Between Time Spent Playing and Child Mental Health
It is theorised that adventurous play offers learning opportunities that help to prevent mental health problems in children. In this study, data from two samples is used to examine associations between the time that children aged 5-11 years spent playing adventurously and their mental health. For comparison, time spent playing unadventurously and time spent playing outdoors are also examined. Study 1 includes a sample of 417 parents, Study 2 incl…
Controlling feeding practices moderate the relationship between emotionality and food fussiness in young children
Intolerance of uncertainty and novelty facilitated extinction: The impact of reinforcement schedule
Individuals who score high in intolerance of uncertainty (IU) display reduced threat extinction. Recently, it was shown that replacing threat associations with novel associations during extinction learning (i.e., presenting a novel tone 100% of the time) can promote threat extinction retention in individuals with high IU. This novelty facilitated extinction (NFE) effect could be driven by the tone's novelty or reliability. Here, we sought to addr…
Children’s Play and Independent Mobility in 2020: Results from the British Children’s Play Survey
The British Children's Play Survey was conducted in April 2020 with a nationally representative sample of 1919 parents/caregivers with a child aged 5-11 years. Respondents completed a range of measures focused on children's play, independent mobility and adult tolerance of and attitudes towards risk in play. The results show that, averaged across the year, children play for around 3 h per day, with around half of children's play happening outdoor…
Development and evaluation of a new measure of children’s play: The Children’s Play Scale (CPS)
The measure will be of value in future research focusing on the public health benefits and correlates of children's play as well as researchers interested in children's outdoor play and play in nature specifically. The development of the measure in collaboration with parents and experts in children's play is a significant strength. It will be of value for future research to further validate the measure against play diaries or activity monitors
The Effect of Anonymous Computer-Mediated Communication on State Anxiety: An Experimental Study
This study examined the effect of anonymous computer-mediated communication (CMC) on state anxiety, specifically focusing on whether the valence of the interaction affected state anxiety before completing an anxiety-inducing task. Sixty-two female participants aged 18–25 were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: positive CMC, negative CMC, and blog. Self-report measures of state anxiety were taken at baseline; after participants had been…
Behavioural validation of a parent-report measure of child food fussiness
The influence of child temperament, maternal core beliefs, maternal self-esteem and maternal psychopathologic symptoms on the development of fussy eating
Behavioural validation of a parent-report measure of child food fussiness
Controlling feeding practices moderate the relationship between emotionality and food fussiness in young children
Adventurous play for a healthy childhood: Facilitators and barriers identified by parents in Britain
The findings of this research support the identification of key targets for those working with parents to improve children's adventurous play opportunities and ultimately their physical and mental health. Future research should seek to design and tailor interventions by asking parents about the support they would value
The influence of child temperament, maternal core beliefs, maternal self-esteem and maternal psychopathologic symptoms on the development of fussy eating
The Effect of Anonymous Computer-Mediated Communication on State Anxiety: An Experimental Study
This study examined the effect of anonymous computer-mediated communication (CMC) on state anxiety, specifically focusing on whether the valence of the interaction affected state anxiety before completing an anxiety-inducing task. Sixty-two female participants aged 18–25 were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: positive CMC, negative CMC, and blog. Self-report measures of state anxiety were taken at baseline; after participants had been…
Behavioural validation of a parent-report measure of child food fussiness
Children’s Play and Independent Mobility in 2020: Results from the British Children’s Play Survey
The British Children's Play Survey was conducted in April 2020 with a nationally representative sample of 1919 parents/caregivers with a child aged 5-11 years. Respondents completed a range of measures focused on children's play, independent mobility and adult tolerance of and attitudes towards risk in play. The results show that, averaged across the year, children play for around 3 h per day, with around half of children's play happening outdoor…
Development and evaluation of a new measure of children’s play: The Children’s Play Scale (CPS)
The measure will be of value in future research focusing on the public health benefits and correlates of children's play as well as researchers interested in children's outdoor play and play in nature specifically. The development of the measure in collaboration with parents and experts in children's play is a significant strength. It will be of value for future research to further validate the measure against play diaries or activity monitors
Parent perceived barriers and facilitators of children’s adventurous play in Britain: A framework analysis
Improved understanding of what influences parent perceptions of adventurous play can inform public health interventions designed to improve children's opportunities for and engagement in adventurous play, with a view to promote children's physical and mental health
Child’s Play: Examining the Association Between Time Spent Playing and Child Mental Health
It is theorised that adventurous play offers learning opportunities that help to prevent mental health problems in children. In this study, data from two samples is used to examine associations between the time that children aged 5-11 years spent playing adventurously and their mental health. For comparison, time spent playing unadventurously and time spent playing outdoors are also examined. Study 1 includes a sample of 417 parents, Study 2 incl…
Controlling feeding practices moderate the relationship between emotionality and food fussiness in young children
Intolerance of uncertainty and novelty facilitated extinction: The impact of reinforcement schedule
Individuals who score high in intolerance of uncertainty (IU) display reduced threat extinction. Recently, it was shown that replacing threat associations with novel associations during extinction learning (i.e., presenting a novel tone 100% of the time) can promote threat extinction retention in individuals with high IU. This novelty facilitated extinction (NFE) effect could be driven by the tone's novelty or reliability. Here, we sought to addr…
Intolerance of uncertainty heightens negative emotional states and dampens positive emotional states
Individuals high in self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) tend to view uncertainty as unbearable and stressful. Notably, IU is transdiagnostic, and high levels of IU are observed across many different emotional disorders (e.g., anxiety, depression). Research has primarily focused on how IU evokes and modulates emotional states such as fear and anxiety. However, recent research suggests that IU may have relevance for a broader range of emo…
Adventurous play in schools: The parent perspective
Adventurous play (play that is exciting and thrilling, where children take age‐appropriate risks, for example climbing trees and jumping from rocks) is increasingly being recognised as beneficial for child health and development. Despite this, children's opportunities for and engagement in this type of play have declined in recent decades. Break times in schools may provide an ideal opportunity to provide adventurous play opportunities for all ch…
Adventurous play for a healthy childhood: Facilitators and barriers identified by parents in Britain
The findings of this research support the identification of key targets for those working with parents to improve children's adventurous play opportunities and ultimately their physical and mental health. Future research should seek to design and tailor interventions by asking parents about the support they would value
Parents Perceptions of Play in School: Findings From the British Children's Play Survey
Using data from the British Children's Play Survey, we aimed to characterise parents’ perception of play in school and to examine to what extent perceptions were accounted for by socio‐demographic factors, geographic factors, and parents’ attitudes towards risk in play and protection from injury. Participants were 1919 parents (54% female) of children aged 5–11 years living in Britain. Overall, parents had positive perceptions about the need for …
The association between park visits, outdoor play and child social-emotional competency in a multi-ethnic, urban cohort
34 % of children do not play outdoors on school days; 20 % don’t play outdoors on weekends. • Outdoor play was associated with improved child social-emotional competency. • Stratification showed associations varied by ethnicity and weekday / weekend use. • Ethnic origin groups gained benefits of outdoor play at different times of the week. • Providing safe local places for children’s play may improve their mental health. Increased access to green…
A scoping review of methods and measures used to capture children's play during school breaktimes
Play is linked to healthy child development and is recognised in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.School breaktimes provide regular opportunities for children to play, and as such, they have been the context of a large and interdisciplinary body of research on play.Play research has diverse aims and cuts across many academic disciplines, resulting in a wide range of methods and measurement tools being used in research to capture child…
Recreational Fear Across Childhood. A Cross-Sectional Study of Scary Activities that Children Enjoy
This study investigated the prevalence of children's engagement in recreational fear activities - i.e., playful engagement with scary stimuli where both fear and enjoyment are experienced. A detailed survey of 1,600 parents/caregivers (67% female) of children aged 1-17 years (50% female) asked about their child's enjoyment of recreational fear activities across 19 activity categories, as well as with whom, where and how often they engage in these…
Early outdoor play predicts trajectories of child mental health in a population‐based cohort
BACKGROUND: Outdoor play may offer developmental opportunities that support good mental health. Cross-sectional data indicate that more outdoor play is associated with better mental health, particularly internalising problems (e.g. anxiety and depression), but longitudinal research is lacking. We used a longitudinal cohort dataset to evaluate whether outdoor play at 2-4 years predicted children's mental health trajectories into middle childhood. …
Parent‐led CBT delivered via online and telephone support alongside usual school practice versus usual school practice only for young children identified as at risk for anxiety disorders through scree…
BACKGROUND: Providing accessible CBT for young children identified as at risk for anxiety disorders through screening in schools could reduce later problems. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of parent-led CBT delivered via online and telephone call support alongside usual school provision, compared to usual school provision only for young children identified through screening as having at least one risk. METHODS: We conducted a prag…
Psychology (15 works) · Developmental psychology (13 works) · Medicine (8 works) · Child Development and Digital Technology (6 works) · Clinical Psychology (6 works) · Psychiatry (6 works) · Anxiety (5 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (5 works) · Children's Rights and Participation (4 works) · Clinical Psychology (4 works)