Imaginary Companions: Contributions to Child Development

Abstract The creation of imaginary companions is a frequent manifestation of pretend play in childhood, which has been little explored in psychological literature. The goal of the present research was to investigate the relation between this phenomenon and language and social cognitive development. Forty children between 6 and 7 years of age (18 with imaginary companions and 22 without) were assessed by theory-of-mind, emotion understanding and vocabulary measures, as well as by interviews exploring engagement in fantasy. An interview on children’s fantasy experiences was conducted with 11 parents/caretakers. Results suggest that the phenomenon is associated with a more developed receptive vocabulary and is not indicative of deficits in social cognitive development.

摘要 想象同伴的创造是儿童假想游戏中常见的表现形式，该现象在心理学文献中鲜有探讨。本研究旨在探究该现象与语言及社会认知发展之间的关联。本研究纳入40名6至7岁的儿童（其中18名拥有想象同伴，22名无想象同伴），通过心理理论（theory-of-mind）、情绪理解与词汇量测评，以及探索幻想参与度的访谈对其进行评估。另有11名家长/照料者接受了关于儿童幻想体验的访谈。研究结果表明，该现象与更发达的接受性词汇能力相关，且并非社会认知发展缺陷的指征。