Characteristics of Preschool and School-Age Children with Imaginary Companions

Abstract

The authors investigated the prevalence and characteristics of children who experience or who have experienced imaginary companions. For the study, a self-administered questionnaire that sought information regarding the characteristics of children with and without imaginary companions was completed by 478 parents of children within the age range of 3 to 9.5 years. A significantly larger number of children with imaginary companions were reported to be first-born children, to be very imaginative, to incorporate myth in their play, and to explain events as magical. Overall, these results are interpreted to indicate that birth order, combined with characteristics such as imaginativeness and a predisposition to engage in fantasy, characterizes children with imaginary companions.

Exploring the links between childhood imaginary companions and auditory hallucinations

“…CICs can have a range of functions such as fun and companionship, providing company, producing a sense of competence, communicating to others and coping with trauma (see Taylor, 1999, for review). There is more convincing evidence that children with CICs have an increased propensity to engage in fantasy, daydreams and vivid imagery (Gleason, Jarudi, & Cheek, 2003;Taylor et al, 2004) and that CICs frequently occur in the context of alleviating loneliness (Bouldin & Pratt, 1999;Taylor, 1999). A similar consensus of evidence points to their use in dealing with distressing emotions or resolving intrapsychic conflicts (Gleason et al, 2003;Taylor, 1999).…”

Auditory false perceptions are mediated by psychosis risk factors

“…Schizotypal traits in adolescence have been related to fantasy proneness (Sánchez-Bernardos & Avia, 2006) and imaginative ability has been related to childhood imaginary friends (Bouldin & Pratt, 1999). In the current study, participants who had had an imaginary friend reported more false perceptions compared to those who had not.…”

Pretend Companions (Imaginary Playmates): The Emergence of a Field

“…It is relevant to a diverse number of psychological phenomena. Some phenomena that already have received attention include children's acquisition of pretend identities (Taylor, Carlson, Maring, Gerow, & Charley, 2004), childhood imagination (e.g., D. G. Singer & Singer, 1990), theory of mind (Taylor & Carlson, 1997), children's reality testing (Bourchier & Davis, 2002), creativity (Kalyan-Masih, 1978), social development (e.g., Bouldin & Pratt, 1999;Gleason, 2002Gleason, , 2004b), children's coping (Taylor, 1999), coping in the elderly (Leger, 1987;Leger, Garoux, Tessier, & Chevalier, 1986;O'Mahony, Shulman, & Silver, 1984), delusional disorders (Von Broembsen, 1986), language development (Bouldin, Bavin, & Pratt, 2002;Piaget, 1955), characteristics of gifted children (Terman, 1926), object relations (Green, 1922), dissociation and dissociative identity disorder (Allison, 1998;Pica, 1999;Sanders, 1992;Silberg, 1998;Trujillo, Lewis, Yeager, & Gidlow, 1996), and even pretense by animals (Mitchell, 2002). A potentially unique contribution of pretend companions to understanding children's (and adults') behaviors is that they are naturally emitted by children.…”