The psychological significance of play with imaginary companions in early childhood

Although social play is common to many species, humans are unique in their ability to extract some of the benefits of social play through imagination. For example, in play with imaginary companions (ICs), children often practice skills that might be useful for later adaptive social, relational, and emotional functioning. While play with ICs does not provide the same immediate feedback that play with real others affords, this imagined, quasisocial context allows children to experiment with or rehearse events that might occur in real relationships. This symbolic enactment of social relationships might afford opportunities to experience not just social situations but all manner of positive and negative emotions in a risk-free way. In addition, children’s interactions with real others around their ICs allow for negotiation of social roles in real relationships. ICs also provide a forum for psychological distance that might help young children manage their real relationships and engage in processes such as negotiation and cooperation, which are needed for successful social adaptation. Although play with ICs is clearly not of adaptive value in an evolutionary sense, for the children who create them, ICs might hold psychological significance for adaptive social development

Imaginary Companions and Young Children\u27s Coping and Competence

Imaginary companions (ICs) are purported to bolster children’s coping and self-competence, but few studies address this claim. We expected having/not having ICs would distinguish children’s coping strategies and competence less than type of companion (i.e., personified object or invisible friend) or quality of child-IC relationship (i.e., egalitarian or hierarchical). We interviewed 72 3- to 6-year-olds and their mothers about children’s coping strategies and competence; teachers rated competence. Mothers reported ICs. IC presence and type did not differentiate coping strategies, but children with egalitarian relationships chose more constructive/prosocial coping strategies, and teachers rated them more socially competent than children with hierarchical child-IC relationships. Mothers related ICs to cognitive competence. Findings highlight (a) modest relations between imaginary relationships and coping/competence, (b) distinctions between mothers’ perceptions and IC functions, and (c) that ICs parallel real relationships in that different dimensions (presence, type/identity, and relationship quality) might be unique contributors to children’s socioemotional development

Connections between Adolescents’ Parasocial Interactions and Recollections of Childhood Imaginative Activities

Parasocial interactions (PSI; one-sided communication imagined with a media figure) in adolescence and imaginative activities in childhood, such as imaginary companions and role play, have a shared foundation in that both use imagination for social purposes. This commonality in both cognitive processes and social uses begs the question of whether they are related phenomena. We examined PSI’s connection to retrospective reports of childhood imaginative activities in the context of the social environment, including relationship functioning (attachment style, social support) and well-being (self-esteem, depressive symptoms), in 151 adolescents (Mage = 14.8 years). PSI and reports of childhood imagination were unrelated to each other and differentially related to the social environment, suggesting that each form of social imagination relates to the developmental task it addresses rather than to individual differences in predilection for fantasy or social functioning

Mothers’ and Fathers’ Attitudes Regarding Pretend Play in the Context of Imaginary Companions and of Child Gender

Mothers’ and fathers’ beliefs and attitudes regarding pretend play were examined as a function of whether their children had imaginary companions and their children’s gender. Parents (73 mothers, 40 fathers) were surveyed about their children’s pretend play, their attitudes toward pretense, and the environments they provided for their children’s pretense. Results revealed that parents of children with and without imaginary companions saw their children’s play similarly. Girls were rated as engaging in more pretend play than boys, and mothers perceived pretend play more positively than fathers did. Results are discussed in terms of the relation between individual differences in children and parents’ attitudes and in terms of the relation between parents’ beliefs about pretend play and their gender roles

Toy stories: Children's use of gender stereotypes in making social judgments

Young children tend to categorize people and objects to understand their environments, but under certain circumstances, they can also appreciate individual differences. Three studies investigated how young children use categorical and individuating information to make social judgments. In Study 1, 3- to 5-year-old children (N = 33; 18 boys, 15 girls) predicted hypothetical peers' preferences for toys along a spectrum from highly stereotyped for girls to neutral to highly stereotyped for boys. Hypothetical peers were described by gender and as enjoying activities that were stereotypical, counter-stereotypical, or unrelated to gender. Children's choices were consistent with use of the provided individuating information rather than gender alone. In Studies 2 and 3, we retested these ideas with preschool samples from the United States (N = 44) and China (N = 21) respectively and also asked children about their toy, playmate, and activity preferences. For both samples, responses followed the same pattern as Study 1 for social judgments and were characterized by preferences for same-gender peers and neutral or gender-typed toys and activities, particularly in girls. While young children express preferences consistent with gender identity, they process and use individuating information in making social judgments, a capacity that could be targeted by interventions designed to reduce the development of gender-based bias