Social Pretend Play in Korean- and Anglo-American Preschoolers

Abstract

Ninety-two preschoolers (46 Anglo- and 46 Korean-American) were observed during free play activities and videotaped in an experimental toy play setting. Cultural differences were examined in the frequency of social pretend play, communicative strategies, and pretend play themes. Anglo-American children engaged in more pretend play during free play activities than Korean-American children. In the experimental setting, there were no cultural differences in the frequency of pretend play; however, there were significant differences in children's communicative strategies and in their play themes. Korean-American children's play included everyday activity and family role themes, whereas Anglo-American children enacted danger in the environment and fantastic themes. Anglo-American children described their own actions, rejected their partners' suggestions, and used directives, whereas Korean-American children described their partners' actions and used tag questions, semantic ties, statements of agreement, and polite requests. The findings suggest that play is a common activity for most children. However, the thematic content and the communicative strategies used to structure and maintain pretend play are influenced by culture.

Preschool Children’s Pretend and Physical Play and Sex of Play Partner: Connections to Peer Competence

“…Consistent with the majority of studies on preschool children's pretend play (e.g., Connolly & Doyle, 1984;Farver & Shin, 1997;Howes et al, 1989;Pellegrini & Perlmutter, 1989;Rubin & Maioni, 1975), but contrary to others (e.g., Lindsey & Mize, 2001;Rubin et al, 1978;Weinberger & Starkey, 1994), we found no gender differences in pretend play. Examination of the studies that have reported gender differences in pretend play reveal that most, although by no means all (see Jones & Glenn, 1991;Weinberger & Starkey, 1994, for exceptions), used semistructured and laboratory settings to observe children's play.…”

“…Some studies indicate that girls engage in more pretend play with peers than boys do (Jones & Glenn, 1991;Lindsey & Mize, 2001;Wall, Pickert, & Gibson, 1990;Weinberger & Starkey, 1994;Werebe & Baudonniere, 1991), whereas other studies indicate that boys engage in more pretend play with peers than girls do (Doyle, Ceschin, Tessier, & Doehring, 1991;Rubin, Maioni, & Hornung, 1976;Rubin, Watson, & Jambor, 1978;Singer, 1973). However, the majority of researchers report no differences in the amount of pretend play girls and boys engage in with peers (e.g., Connolly & Doyle, 1984;Farver & Shin, 1997;Howes, Unger, Seidner, 1989;Pellegrini & Perlmutter, 1989;Rubin & Maioni, 1975). As suggested by Goncu, Patt, and Kouba (2002), differences in methodologies or observational settings across studies may account for these discrepancies.…”

Imaginary companions: An evaluation of parents as reporters

“…Pretend play themes were coded to give a comparison of the content of pretense children and parents associate with imaginary companions because imaginary companions are themselves a form of elaborate pretense (Taylor, 1999). Categories of pretense themes were derived from Farver and Shin (1997) and consisted of (a) family interactions, (b) everyday activities, (c) danger in the environment, and (d) fantastic themes. In addition, activities were coded as to whether daily routines were mentioned (e.g.…”

The status–power arena: a comprehensive agent-based model of social status dynamics and gender in groups of children

“…One American study on 'social pretend play', with part Anglo and part South Korean-American 7-year-olds, provides supporting evidence (Farver and Shin 1997). South Korea has a MAS score of 39 and a GII 2014 of 23, both considerably lower than the USA.…”