This study compared pretend play of Brazilian children (41 girls and 35 boys, 4 to 6 years old) of five different cultural groups: (a) Indians, (b) seashore, (c) low socioeconomic status (SES) urban, (d) high SES urban, and (e) mixed SES urban. This cross-cultural investigation was based in naturalistic observation and conducted within a methodological framework that considered the content and the meaning of symbolic transformation and its structure. Although pretend play occurred in all groups, high and mixed SES urban children engaged in more pretending than the others. In accordance with the theoretical claim that make believe is a universal phenomenon, the differences among cultural groups were expressed more in the content than in the structure of pretend play.
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