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Children with imaginary companions focus on mental characteristics when describing their real-life friends

Davis, P.; Meins, E.; Fernyhough, C.

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Authors

P. Davis

E. Meins



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.

Citation

Davis, P., Meins, E., & Fernyhough, C. (2014). Children with imaginary companions focus on mental characteristics when describing their real-life friends. Infant and Child Development, 23(6), 622-633. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.1869

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 14, 2014
Online Publication Date May 13, 2014
Publication Date Nov 1, 2014
Deposit Date Jun 4, 2014
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Infant and Child Development
Print ISSN 1522-7227
Electronic ISSN 1522-7219
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 23
Issue 6
Pages 622-633
DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.1869
Keywords Imaginary companions, Friendship, Mind-mindedness, Theory of mind, Peer relationships.

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Copyright Statement
Advance online version © 2014 The Authors. Infant and Child Development published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.






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