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Phi Theta Kappa Honors in Action

A research guide for the Honors in Action project completed by members of Phi Theta Kappa.

Socioeconomics of play

(John, Bernie, Bianca)

Theme 2: Economics of play - What are the financial, physical, and psychological costs and benefits of play?

Research question: Socioeconomics plays a large factor in play. How does the cost of “play” influence who has access to play? How does access then shape our society? How does race play a role in finding good outlets of play to ease the mind?

(Inspiration: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8297079/, https://www.easternct.edu/center-for-early-childhood-education/expert-interviews/cultural-influences-on-childrens-play.html, http://ruby.fgcu.edu/courses/ehyun/10041/culture_and_development_in.htm)

Search the Internet, use Wikipedia, or utilize one of the library's Research Starter databases to learn more about your topic and look for synonyms and related terms to use in your searches ("Pre-research").
To target government websites (for statistics or government-funded studies), add site:.gov to your Google search.
- A good government website for this topic is "Social Determinants of Health": https://www.cdc.gov/socialdeterminants/about.html
Try the Directory of Open Access Journals for peer-reviewed articles freely available online: https://doaj.org/
If RVCC does not have access to full text of a needed article, use Interlibrary Loan to get it. Ask Janelle or another librarian if you need help.

Potential keywords

access	equity	participation
achievement	ethnicity	pay-to-play
activity	exclusion	play
affluence	expensive	preference
affordable	extracurricular	price
arts	facilities	program
barrier	financial	race
benefit	hobby	recreation
budget	inclusion	role
club	income	rural
cognitive	independence	safety
competitive	individual	scouts
cost	inequity	self-reliance
culture	learning	"socioeconomic status"
development	lesson	sports
diversity	music	team
economic	norms	urban
engaged	opportunity	value
equipment	outcome

Recommended Databases

Depending on the topic you choose, these databases may provide targeted access to relevant resources. Also try multidisciplinary databases listed on our databases page, or RVOneSearch on the library homepage, which searches most databases at once.

Arts & Humanities Database This link opens in a new window
A ProQuest database covering subjects within the arts.
Subjects include contemporary art, design, crafts, photography, archaeology, anthropology and classical studies, architecture, interior design, urban planning, history, philosophy, geography, religion, modern languages and literature, music, theater, film studies, ethnic studies, women’s studies, sociology, and cultural studies.

This database is supportive of studio art and design courses and students can access images and other information about contemporary art practice as well as resources on art from history, sociology, philosophy and cultural studies journals. The database includes over 500 titles, with mostly full-text access from the 1970s to present from both scholarly peer-reviewed journals and selected trade and consumer titles relevant to applied arts and cultural studies.
Business Source Elite This link opens in a new window
An EBSCO database providing access to scholarly business, management, economics, and supply chain journals, many with full-text access.
The collection also includes non-scholarly publications covering topics such as accounting, banking, finance, international business, marketing, and sales. It includes access to over 60,000 videos from the Associated Press, the world’s leading news agency with footage from 1930 to the present, and is updated monthly.
Diversity Studies Collection This link opens in a new window
A Gale database that provides access to scholarly journals and magazines that explore cultural differences, contributions, and influences in the global community. This is a good resource for the social sciences, history and liberal arts coursework.
Education Database This link opens in a new window
This is a ProQuest database which includes over 1,000 full-text journals and 18,000 dissertations, supporting research on the theory and practice of education.
This database covers not only the literature on primary, secondary, and higher education but also special education, home schooling, early childhood education, and adult education. Approximately 75% of the publications included in this database are scholarly journals. The majority of the content spans from 1980-present, but there are earlier documents and articles included. Use this database in conjunction with ERIC for comprehensive education research and full-text access to some articles only cited in ERIC.
ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) This link opens in a new window
ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) is an authoritative database of indexed and full-text education literature and resources supported by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement and is administered by the U.S. National Library of Education (NLE).
It contains more than 1.6 million records and links to hundreds of thousands of full-text documents including journal articles (most of which are scholarly), books, conference papers, curriculum guides, policy papers and more. Through the EBSCO interface, it provides an education-specific thesaurus that includes controlled vocabulary.
Fine Arts & Music Collection This link opens in a new window
A Gale database that provides access to scholarly journals and magazines that support research in areas including drama, music, art history, and filmmaking with many arts related topics such as art therapy, dance, elementary music education, advanced music theory, and the feminist film movement.
The database emphasizes full-text content for publications included in the Wilson Art Index and Repertoire International de Lietterature Musicale (RILM) bibliography. This is a good resource for studio art and visual arts students, art history students, dance, film and music students.
Pop Culture Collection This link opens in a new window
This Gale database provides full-text access to scholarly journals and magazines that both analyze and contribute to popular culture.
The database offers useful information for students studying or researching in the social sciences or the arts.
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
This Elsevier database provides mostly full-text access to over 14 million scientific, technical and health publications from over 3,800 journals and more than 35,000 books.
Some articles have citation and abstract information only. This is a good source for scholarly articles in nursing, psychology and the sciences.
Social Science Database This link opens in a new window
A ProQuest database that offers indexing and full-text for hundreds of academic scholarly journals covering a wide range of social science disciplines including anthropology, criminology, economics, education, political science, psychology, social work, and sociology.
Helpful to students studying nursing, criminal justice and the social sciences.
SocIndex This link opens in a new window
This EBSCO database provides comprehensive coverage of sociology, encompassing all sub-disciplines and closely related areas of study.
It features millions of records with subject headings from a sociological thesaurus. It provides mostly full-text access to scholarly journals, as well as indexing for books, monographs, conference papers and other non-periodical materials. It also provides over 25,000 author profiles on the most prolific, most cited and most frequently searched for authors in the database.
Sociology Database This link opens in a new window
This ProQuest database provides access to the full-text of more than 700 scholarly journals in sociology and social work.
Its content covers the international literature of sociology and social work, including culture and social structure, history and theory of sociology, social psychology, substance abuse and addiction.