A Study Of The Relationship Between Imaginary Partners And Peer Development In Children Aged 4 To 6 Years

The main purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between imaginary companions and 4 to 6 years old children's peer development.We adopted two basic research perspectives.Firstly,we examined the relationship between imaginary companions and the external components of 4 to 6 years old children's peer development.Secondly,we examined the relationship between imaginary companions and the internal social cognition of 4 to 6 years old children's peer development.In order to better in line with the theoretical views of researchers at different stages,this study took 3 variables into consideration.That's the appearance of imaginary companions(with imaginary companions,without imaginary companions),the imaginary companions types(personified objects,invisible friends)and the child-IC relationship qualities(hierarchical relationships,egalitarian relationships).Overall,this study mainly contained 5 sub-studies.In these 5 sub-studies,Study 1 laid the foundation for the 4 follow-up studies.Study 2 and Study 3 chiefly concerned the first research perspective.Study 4 and Study 5 chiefly concerned the second research perspective.In Study 1,we investigated the prevalence of imaginary companions and their internal variables in 4 to 6 years old children.Specifically,we adopted a double-interview process(the children themselves,plus their parents)to determine whether the children had one or more imaginary companions at present and the types of their imaginary companions.Within the children with imaginary companions,the child-IC relationship qualities were determined by the results of their mothers'interview.We could make three conclusions from Study 1.Firstly,the prevalence of imaginary companions was influenced by both age groups and gender.In term of age groups,the proportion of children who had one or more imaginary companions was higher in 6 years old group than in 5 years old group or in 4 years old group.In terms of gender,the proportion of children who had one or more imaginary companions was higher in girls than in boys.Secondly,at least from the 4 years old group,there was no relationship between imaginary companion types and child-IC relationship qualities.In other words,imaginary companion types and relationship qualities might represent different dimensions of imaginary companion play from then on.Thirdly,a gender difference existed in the reasons why children created imaginary companions.The main reason for the boys was 'like'.The main reason for the girls was 'lonely and need a company'.In Study 2,we investigated the relationship between imaginary companions and their internal variables and 4 to 6 years old children's peer relationships.Specifically,children's peer relationships were measured by sociometric nomination.We could make two conclusions from Study 2.Firstly,compared with children without imaginary companions,children with imaginary companions had certain advantages in peer relationships.Secondly,compared with children with hierarchical relationships,children with egalitarian had certain advantages in peer relationships.Thirdly,in the negative nomination,the differences between children with different child-IC relationship qualities changed significantly in different age groups.Only in the 4 years old group,a division emerged between children with different child-IC relationship qualities.Children with egalitarian relationships received significantly fewer negative nominations.In Study 3,we investigated the relationship between imaginary companions and their internal variables and 4 to 6 years old children's social competence.Specifically,teachers were asked to rate each child in his or her class about social competence on the Teacher-Child Rating Scale.We could make two conclusions from Study 3.Firstly,compared with children without imaginary companions,children with imaginary companions had certain advantages in social competence.Secondly,compared with children with hierarchical relationships,children with egalitarian relationships had certain advantages in social competence.Study 4 included 2 sub-studies.Study a was to investigate the relationship between imaginary companions and 4 to 5 years old children's first-order false-beliefs understanding.Study b was to investigate the relationship between imaginary companions and 5 to 6 years old children's second-order false-beliefs understanding.Through these two sub-studies,Study 4 could investigate the relationship between imaginary companions and their internal variables and 4 to 6 years old children's false beliefs understanding in a more complete way.After combing the results of these two sub-studies,we could make two conclusions from Study 4.Firstly,compared with children without imaginary companions,children with imaginary companions might have certain advantages in false-beliefs understanding.Secondly,until the 5 years old group,a division might emerge between children with different child-IC relationship qualities in false-beliefs understanding.Children with egalitarian relationships might have certain advantages.In Study 5,we investigated the relationship between imaginary companions and their internal variables and 4 to 6 years old children's emotion understanding.Specifically,Study 5 used the Test of Emotion Comprehension to measure children's emotion understanding.We could make one conclusion from Study 5.Compared with children without imaginary companions,children with imaginary companions had certain advantages in emotion understanding.In summary,as to the relationship between imaginary companions and 4 to 6 years old children's peer development,we could make five conclusions from this study.Firstly,compared with children without imaginary companions,children with imaginary companions had certain advantages in the external components and internal social cognition of peer development.Secondly,in the external components and internal social cognition of peer relationship,certain similarities emerged between children with different imaginary companions types.Thirdly,compared with children with hierarchical relationships,children with egalitarian relationships had certain advantages in peer development and these advantages were concentrated on the external components.Fourthly,compared with imaginary companion types,child-IC relationship qualities seemed to be more relevant to children's early peer development.Fifthly,in different age groups,two development models might exist between children with different child-IC relationship qualities in the external components and internal social cognition of peer development.The innovations of this study were concentrated on the research methods and research contents.As to the research methods,this study enlarged the sample size by a large margin when allowed by the objective conditions.In addition,the application of series of studies might result in better internal and external validity.As to the research contexts,under a Chinese cultural background,this study investigated the relationship between imaginary companions and their internal variables and children's peer development through 5 sub-studies.This was definitely a more complete way.In the future,researchers in the area of children's play and educators can also be inspired by these innovative works.Based on this,future researches and practical guidance can be done by them.