Children with Imaginary Companions Focus on Mental Characteristics When Describing Their Real‐Life Friends

Abstract

Relations between having an imaginary companion (IC) and (i) descriptions of a real-life friend, (ii) theory of mind performance, and (iii) reported prosocial behaviour and behavioural difficulties were investigated in a sample of 5-year-olds (N = 159). Children who had an IC were more likely than their peers without an IC to describe their best friends with reference to their mental characteristics, but IC status was unrelated to children's theory of mind performance and reported prosocial behaviour and behavioural difficulties. These findings are discussed in the context of the proposal that there is a competence–performance gap in children's mentalizing abilities. © 2014 The Authors. Infant and Child Development published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Prevalence of Imaginary Companions in Children: A Meta-analysis

“…Given the problems noted above, most researchers have adopted a more rigorous assessment method, wherein children and parents are interviewed separately and their reports are compared (Davis, Meins, & Fernyhough, 2014;Moriguchi & Shinohara, 2012;Taylor & Carlson, 1997). Some variants of this method exist in the extant body of research.…”

“…Several studies show that children's ICs play roles in their social, emotional, and cognitive development, but there remain inconsistencies in the results pertaining to the effects of ICs. Some studies supported the effect of ICs on social and communicative skills, coping competence, and creativity, whereas others failed to find the differences between children with and without ICs (Bouldin & Pratt, 2001;Davis, et al, 2011;Davis, et al, 2014;Giménez-Dasí, et al, 2014;Hoff, 2005;Lillard & Kavanaugh, 2014;Lillard et al, 2013;Manosevttz, et al, 1977;Mauro, 1991;Moriguchi et al, 2016;Moriguchi, Sakata, Ishibashi, & Ishikawa, 2015;Taylor, et al, 2004).…”

Imaginary Companions in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Children who create ICs have been shown to have advantages compared to children without these entities (NIC). Some studies report that having an IC is related to superior ToM and emotion understanding abilities (Giménez-Dasi et al 2016 ; Taylor and Carlson 1997 ), although others have reported null findings for this relation (Davis et al 2011 , 2014 ; Fernyhough et al 2007 ). Children with ICs are more likely than their NIC counterparts (a) to know that their minds are opaque to others (Davis et al 2011 ), (b) to form richer narratives when storytelling (Trionfi and Reese 2009 ), (c) show more sophisticated self-directed speech (Davis et al 2013 ), and (d) are better able to take the listener’s perspective into account during a referential communication paradigm (Roby and Kidd 2008 ).…”

“Ele Me Deixava Especial”: Amigos Imaginários, Suas Funções E Atitudes Parentais

“…Por exemplo, o estereótipo da criança solitária e não aceita por pares foi desafiado pelos achados de Gleason (2004), que sugerem que as crianças que possuem companhias de faz de conta possuem tantos amigos quanto aquelas que não se engajam nessa fantasia. Outras evidências demonstram que tais crianças apresentam maior tendência que seus pares, sem companhia imaginária, a enfatizar características mentais, quando estão descrevendo seus melhores amigos (Davis, Meins, & Fernyhough, 2014). Esses resultados sugerem, portanto, que as crianças que se engajam nesse faz de conta sofisticado tendem a ser indivíduos sociáveis, que possuem um interesse particular por interações sociais, o que se reflete na sua brincadeira simbólica.…”