Understanding Play Security Through Upstream, Midstream, and Downstream Determinants

Before we go any further, it’s important to start here—especially for readers who may be new to conversations about play.

Play is a fundamental right of the child. It is a developmental necessity, not an optional enrichment, and one of the strongest indicators of a healthy, thriving childhood. This right is explicitly recognized in Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which affirms children’s right to rest, leisure, play, and participation in cultural life (United Nations, 1989).

When children are deprived of play, they are pushed prematurely into an adult world—one that relies heavily on language as the primary mode of processing. This is misaligned with how children understand and experience the world. Children make meaning through movement, imagination, sensory exploration, experimentation, and relationships. Play is how children think, regulate, communicate, and grow.

With this foundation in place, Play Security expands the conversation beyond individual play opportunities. It recognizes that children’s access to play is shaped by a broader ecosystem of social, economic, cultural, relational, environmental, and political conditions. These conditions determine whether play is stable and supported—or constrained and unsafe.

Understanding Play Security requires looking at how these conditions operate at multiple levels. Public health and social determinants of health frameworks often describe influences on well-being as upstream, midstream, and downstream determinants. Applied to play, this lens helps explain why access to play is unequal—and where change is most effective.

Upstream Determinants of Play: Systems, Policies, and Power

Upstream determinants are the structural forces that shape the overall conditions for children’s play. These include:

• Government policy and regulation
  
  

• Urban planning and land-use decisions
  
  

• Childcare and early learning systems
  
  

• Social safety nets and income supports
  
  

• Structural inequities (colonialism, racism, ableism, gendered norms)
  
  

• Climate and environmental conditions
  
  

These determinants sit furthest “upstream” because they influence everything that flows below them. They shape which neighbourhoods have safe green space, whether early learning settings can support outdoor and play-based learning, and whether families have the resources and stability needed to support play.

Why upstream determinants matter for Play Security

When upstream conditions are inequitable, individual effort cannot compensate. If policies, planning decisions, and funding structures fail to reflect children’s developmental and cultural needs, play becomes unstable, inaccessible, or unsafe.

Key upstream questions

• How do zoning and planning decisions affect children’s access to outdoor and nature-based play?
  
  

• Do childcare and licensing frameworks support or restrict play-based learning?
  
  

• Which families face systemic barriers—such as racism, poverty, or displacement—that limit children’s freedom to play?
  
  

• Is climate resilience considered in the design of play environments?
  
  

• Is play treated as a developmental right or an optional activity?
  
  

Addressing upstream determinants reshapes the foundational conditions required for Play Security.

Midstream Determinants of Play: Community and Institutional Access

Midstream determinants sit closer to children’s everyday lives. They reflect the neighbourhood, community, and institutional factors that shape how play is accessed and experienced.

These include:

• Neighbourhood safety and walkability
  
  

• Availability of play spaces and programs
  
  

• Transportation access
  
  

• Community infrastructure (parks, courtyards, rooftops, laneways)
  
  

• School and childcare practices
  
  

• Cultural relevance and inclusion
  
  

Midstream determinants often determine whether children can play regularly and safely in environments where they feel a sense of belonging.

Why midstream determinants matter for Play Security

Even when supportive policies exist, play remains inequitable if communities lack safe spaces, cultural relevance, or infrastructure. Play Security depends on whether systems translate into real, daily access.

Key midstream questions

• Is there a safe and accessible place to play within a child’s home community?
  
  

• Do programs reflect children’s cultural identities and community histories?
  
  

• Can families access play opportunities without a car?
  
  

• Are educators supported to facilitate outdoor and play-based learning?
  
  

• Do environments promote belonging—or surveillance and exclusion?
  
  

Strengthening midstream determinants ensures that play is not just theoretically supported, but practically available.

Downstream Determinants of Play: Daily Lived Experience

Downstream determinants are the most immediate conditions shaping children’s day-to-day access to play.

These include:

• Daily opportunities for free and self-directed play
  
  

• Caregiver time, stress, and capacity
  
  

• Children’s mobility and independence
  
  

• Access to clothing, gear, and adaptive supports
  
  

• Sense of safety, freedom, and belonging
  
  

• Supervision norms and autonomy
  
  

These determinants reflect what children experience directly: where they can go, how they can move, and whether play feels joyful or restricted.

Why downstream determinants matter for Play Security

Downstream barriers often reveal accumulated upstream and midstream inequities. When children lack time, space, or emotional safety to play, the cause is usually systemic—not individual.

Key downstream questions

• Does this child have consistent time and space for free play?
  
  

• How do caregiver stress, work schedules, or housing instability affect play?
  
  

• Does the child have appropriate clothing, sensory supports, or adaptive tools?
  
  

• Does the child feel safe and welcomed outdoors?
  
  

• Is play experienced as joy and freedom—or as risk and control?
  
  

Supporting downstream determinants ensures that Play Security is felt in children’s everyday lives.

Why Play Security Requires All Three Levels

When upstream, midstream, and downstream determinants are aligned, play becomes:

• Possible through supportive systems
  
  

• Accessible and culturally grounded through communities
  
  

• Meaningful, joyful, and freeing in daily life
  
  

When these levels are misaligned, inequities compound, leading to play insecurity—the unstable, inadequate, or unsafe access to play shaped by systemic and sociocultural barriers.

A Play Security framework shifts the question from “How do we get children to play more?” to:

“How do we design systems, communities, and environments where children can play safely, freely, and equitably?”

Closing Reflection

Ensuring that all children experience play as freedom, belonging, and possibility requires more than good intentions. It requires alignment across policy, community design, and daily lived conditions.

When we address the social determinants of play at every level—upstream, midstream, and downstream—we move closer to a world where Play Security is not an aspiration, but a lived reality for every child.

References

United Nations. (1989). Convention on the Rights of the Child. https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child