Imaginary Companions: The children who create them and the adult response

As a part of childhood development, the need for companionship and socialization are a necessity. But what happens when a child does not have any friends or adults to socialize with? Imaginary friends (also known as imaginary companions or ICs) are created to befriend children and help them develop their emotions. This thesis is a literary study about the field of imaginary companions, the children who create them, and the response the environment has to these “invisible friends.

The Impact of Imaginary Companions on Social Development

The imagination and creativity of children is often puzzling to the adult mind. Pretend play and make-believe friends are often prevalent in the life of a child. Past research shows a relationship between the use of the imagination in children’s play and their social, cognitive, and emotional development. Furthermore, there are a number of gender differences in the type of imaginary play and pretend friends children create. Children of all ages reported engaging in make-believe play. Therefore, this study investigated whether children create imaginary companions as a result of their social adaptability or socially adapt in the way that they do as a result of the presence of an imaginary companion

The pirate in the pump: children's views of objects as imaginary friends at the start of school

The main aim of this paper is to use a phenomenological approach (Merleau-Ponty, 1962. Phenomenology of Perception. Evanston: Northwestern University Press; Merleau-Ponty. 1968. The Visible and the Invisible: Followed by Working Notes. Evanston: Northern University Press) to contribute a new theoretical understanding of what imaginary friends mean for children in the context of starting school. The paper addresses the specific area of ‘object-friends’ and draws on examples from an empirical and consultative study of a small sample of five and six-year-old children’s everyday experiences of friendship in school. The paper argues that if practitioners consider embodiment approaches and listen attentively to the knowledge and information that children share about their imaginary friends, this could be used to nurture children’s early learnin

Imaginary companions in preschool-aged children: A theoretical examination, an exploration of the role of parents, and a study of the relationship between a child and her imagination

Two theories about why children create imaginary companions were examined, the void-stress and the psychoanalytic theories. The relationship between children and their imaginary companions, the role of parents, and fantasy choice were also examined. To these ends, children completed measures of loneliness, moral reasoning, locus of control, stress, and self-perceived competence. If they had an imaginary friend they also completed a perceived competence scale from the point of view of their imaginary companion. Children with imaginary companions also completed two measures of the relationship between themselves and their imagined friend: relationship circles and the Sibling Inventory of Differential Experience. All children were given 3 fantasy choices. Parents completed measures of parenting stress, nurturance, and restrictiveness. Results were somewhat supportive of the psychoanalytic view but not supportive of the void-stress model. Low levels of parenting stress were related to elevated levels of perceived cognitive and athletic competence in children with imaginary friends. The data on the relationship between a child and her imaginary friend suggested that children create caring imaginary companions who feel closer to the child than she feels towards it. Results also indicated that how a child portrayed her relationship with her parents was reflected in how she portrayed her relationship with her imaginary companion. It was suggested that this might be explained within the framework of internal working models. Finally, children with imaginary friends were more likely to not make a fantasy choice after the third session during which they discussed their imaginary friend. It was suggested that this might be because after a long session during which the child discussed her imaginary friendship she was attempting to balance this by making a nonfantasy, real world choice. Possibilities for future research were discussed with an emphasis on including data from parents and on the continued exploration into the quality and type of relationship between a child and her invisible friend

Reconceptualizing imaginary friends: interdisciplinary approaches for understanding invisible companions

Imaginary friends or invisible companions are common features of cross-cultural childhoods. Research is primarily located in developmental psychology, where invisible companions are considered part of imaginary play. We argue for a reconceptualization of the core phenomenon, to one of regularly interacting with a person who is not normally perceptible to others, instead of uncritically adopting the dominant Euro-Western ontology of imagination. Analyzing the central experience through other branches of psychology, anthropology, religion, and spirituality shows that different fields are potentially discussing the same phenomenon, albeit obscured by disciplinary boundaries. We outline some implications of this new approach for the development of childhood studies