Die überwiegende Mehrheit der Kinder nimmt gerne an Aktivitäten teil, die sowohl gruselig als auch unterhaltsam sind, ein Phänomen, das als „Freizeitangst“ bezeichnet wird. Diese Art der spielerischen Auseinandersetzung mit der Angst ist ein häufiger Bestandteil der Entwicklung vom Säuglingsalter bis zum Teenageralter, wobei sich die spezifischen Aktivitäten mit zunehmendem Alter der Kinder ändern.

I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10578-025-01850-2

From the linked article:

A new study has found that a **vast majority of children enjoy engaging in activities that are both scary and fun, a phenomenon scientists call “recreational fear.” The research reveals that this type of playful engagement with fear is a common part of development from infancy through the teenage years, with the specific activities changing as children get older**. The findings were published in the journal Child Psychiatry & Human Development.

The results revealed that recreational fear is an extremely common part of childhood. An overwhelming 93% of children were reported by their parents to enjoy at least one type of scary yet fun activity. Engagement was also frequent, with 70% of children participating in such an activity at least once a week and about 20% doing so on a daily basis. The most popular category across all ages involved experiences with high speeds, heights, or depths, such as on swings, slides, or amusement park rides. This was followed by various forms of media, including scary movies, television shows, stories, and video games. The least popular categories involved breaking norms, like engaging in activities that inflict mild pain or violate social rules.

The study identified clear developmental trends. The variety of recreational fear activities that children enjoy appears to change with age. The average number of different categories a child enjoys increases significantly between the ages of one and four. After that, from age five to seventeen, there is a slight but steady decrease in the number of different activity types enjoyed.

More telling was the shift in the nature of the activities themselves. Younger children were more likely to experience recreational fear through physical and imaginative play. Activities like rough-and-tumble play, pretend play with scary themes, and rule-based games like hide-and-seek were common. As children grew into adolescence, their engagement shifted toward media-based experiences. The enjoyment of scary movies, television series, video games, and frightening content on social media all increased steadily with age. The one constant was the popularity of activities involving speeds, depths, and heights, which remained high across the entire age range, though the frequency of participation tended to decrease as children got older.

The social context of these activities also evolved over time. The findings indicate that recreational fear is a predominantly social experience for children. Younger children most often engaged in these activities with parents, caregivers, or siblings. As they entered adolescence, friends and peers became their primary companions for scary fun. Solitary engagement with recreational fear was less common overall but did increase as children aged. This shift toward independence was also reflected in parents’ responses. For children around age 11 and older, parents were more likely to answer “I don’t know” when asked with whom or where their child was engaging in these activities.

No joke, it started with Slender Man (for me) then moved to Five Nights at Freddys, now we’re onto stuff like Poppy’s Playtime. It’s all terrifying but I can see why it’s fun for kids 🙂