Sixty-four children between the ages of seven and twelve were asked a series of open-ended questions about their favorite fantasies or make-believe games. Their responses were coded by judges on a number of dimensions, such as positivity of the fantasy and type of role being enacted. The fantasy variables were then correlated with several demographic and personality individual difference measures, including age, sex, intelligence, self-monitoring, and self-consciousness. Our results thus provide valuable descriptive and correlational data on the nature of fantasy in middle childhood, a population that has been neglected in past research on fantasy.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
SheafferC. I.GoldS. R.HendersonB. B., Environmental Influences on Children's Fantasy, Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 6, pp. 151–157, 1986.
2.
SmithP. K., The Relevance of Fantasy Play for Development in Young Children, in The Development of Children's Imaginative Writing, CowieH. (ed.), pp. 12–31, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1984.
3.
TamburriniJ., The Development of Representational Imagination, in The Development of Children's Imaginative Writing, CowieH. (ed.), pp. 32–48, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1984.
4.
ConnollyJ. A.DoyleA., Relation of Social Fantasy Play to Social Competence in Preschoolers, Developmental Psychology, 20, pp. 797–806, 1984.
5.
SingerJ. L., The Child's World of Make-Believe, Academic Press, New York, 1975.
6.
PiagetJ., Play, Dreams, and Imitation in Childhood, Norton, New York, 1962.
7.
MedrichE. A.RoizenJ.RubinV., The Serious Business of Growing Up: A Study of Children's Lives Outside School, University of California Press, Berkeley, California, 1982.
8.
WestA.MartindaleC.Sutton-SmithB., Age Trends in the Content of Children's Spontaneous Fantasy Narratives, Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 111, pp. 391–405, 1985.
9.
SingerD. G.SingerJ. L., The House of Make-believe: Children's Play and the Developing Imagination, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990.
10.
GottliebS., Modeling Effects Upon Fantasy, in The Child's World of Make-believe, SingerJ. L. (ed.), pp. 155–182, Academic Press, New York, 1973.
11.
GarveyC., Play, Fontana/Open Books, London, 1977.
12.
SingerJ. L.SingerD. G., Television, Imagination, and Aggression: A Study of Preschoolers, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, New Jersey, 1981.
13.
WallS. M.PickertS. M.GibsonW. B., Fantasy Play in 5 and 6-year-old children, The Journal of Psychology, 123, pp. 245–256, 1989.
14.
McLoydV. C., The Effects of the Structure of Play Objects on the Pretend Play of Low-income Preschool Children, Child Development, 54, pp. 626–635, 1983.
15.
PeirceK.EdwardsE. D., Children's Constructions of Fantasy Stories: Gender Differences in Conflict Resolution Strategies, Sex Roles, 18, pp. 393–404, 1988.
16.
ColeD.LaVoieJ. C., Fantasy Play and Related Cognitive Development in 2- to 6-Year Olds, Developmental Psychology, 21, pp. 233–240, 1985.
17.
McAninchC. B.MilichR.HarrisM. J., Expectancy Effects, Gender, and Children's Interactions, manuscript under review, 1993.
18.
DunnL. M.DunnL. M., Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—Revised, American Guidance Service, Circle Pines, Minnesota, 1981.
19.
SattlerJ. M., Assessment of Children (3rd Edition), Jerome Sattler, Publisher, San Francisco, California, 1988.
20.
GrazianoW. G.LeoneC.MusserL. M.LautenschlagerG. J., Self-monitoring in Children: A Differential Approach to Social Development, Developmental Psychology, 23, pp. 571–576, 1987.
21.
SnyderM., The Self-monitoring of Expressive Behavior, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, pp. 526–537, 1974.
22.
WalserM. J.McAninchC. B.HoyleR. H., Assessment of Self-consciousness in Children, poster presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Society, June 1991.
23.
FenigsteinA.ScheierM. F.BussA. H., Public and Private Self-consciousness: Assessment and Theory, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 43, pp. 522–527, 1975.
24.
OlszewskiP., Individual Differences in Preschool Children's Production of Verbal Fantasy Play, Merrill Palmer Quarterly, 33, pp. 69–86, 1987.
25.
RosenthalR.RosnowR. L., Essentials of Behavioral Research, McGraw-Hill, 1984.
26.
SedlmeierP.GigerenzerG., Do Studies of Statistical Power have an Effect on the Power of Studies, Psychological Bulletin, 105, pp. 309–316, 1989.
27.
RosenfeldE.HuesmannL. R.EronL. D.Torney-PurtaJ. V., Measuring Patterns of Fantasy Behavior in Children, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, pp. 347–366, 1982.
28.
MyersS. A., The Wilson-Barber Inventory of Childhood Memories and Imaginings: Children's Form and Norms for 1337 children and adolescents, Journal of Mental Imagery, 7, pp. 83–94, 1983.
