Unstructured play in hospital settings: an internal locus of control rationale.

Play reveals how well or poorly children are coping with stresses. Simultaneously, play can influence the balance between affect and cognition as well as between children and their environments. Play is a process by which children can control contingencies and affect outcomes. It is unstructured play that particularly permits children to control events, ideas, and relationships. This article provides a locus of control rationale for unstructured play in hospital settings and presents implications for adults' roles in young children's play that enhance internal perception of control.