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The main aim of this paper is to use a phenomenological approach (Merleau-Ponty, 1962. Phenomenology of Perception. Evanston: Northwestern University Press; Merleau-Ponty. 1968. The Visible and the Invisible: Followed by Working Notes. Evanston: Northern University Press) to contribute a new theoretical understanding of what imaginary friends mean for children in the context of starting school. The paper addresses the specific area of ‘object-friends’ and draws on examples from an empirical and consultative study of a small sample of five and six-year-old children’s everyday experiences of friendship in school. The paper argues that if practitioners consider embodiment approaches and listen attentively to the knowledge and information that children share about their imaginary friends, this could be used to nurture children’s early learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Early Childhood is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Highlights • Advices given by multiple agents may distract the user from getting the messages. • Proper timing and contents can be setup to prevent such distraction and confusion. • Adapting timing and contents can make more effective advice giving as persuasion. • Adapting the advices can be based on agents' shared intentions to persuade the user. Abstract Assistive agents have been used to give advices to the users regarding activities in daily lives. Although adviser bots are getting smarter and gaining more popularity these days they are usually developed and deployed independent from each other. When several agents operate together in the same context, their advices may no longer be effective since they may instead overwhelm or confuse the user if not properly arranged. Only little attentions have been paid to coordinating different agents to give different advices to a user within the same environment. However, aligning the advices on-the-fly with the appropriate presentation timing at the right context still remains a great challenge. In this paper, a coordination framework for advice giving and persuasive agents is presented. Apart from preventing overwhelming messages, the adaptation enables cooperation among the agents to make their advices more impactful. In contrast to conventional models that rely on natural language contents or direct multi-modal cues to align the dialogs, the proposed framework is built to be more practical allowing the agents to actively share their observation, goals, and plans to each other. This allows them to adapt the schedules, strategies, and contents of their scheduled advices or reminders at runtime with respect to each other's objectives. Challenges and issues in multi-agent adviser systems are identified and defined in this paper supported by a survey study about perceived usefulness and user comprehensibility of advices delivered by multiple agents. The coordination among the advice giving agents are investigated and exemplified with a simulation of activity of daily living in the context of aging in place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims at providing an interdisciplinary research into names of imaginary friends, in view of describing the particularity of the process of referring by means of such names. To this end, the study will use theoretical principles pertaining to psychology, referential semantics, onomastics and pragmatics. For illustrative purposes, character names in the American animated television series Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (2004-2009) will be analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Child Psychotherapy is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper informs therapeutic practices that use play, by providing a non-standard philosophical account of pretense: the enactive account of pretend play (EAPP). The EAPP holds that pretend play activity need not invoke mental representational mechanisms; instead, it focuses on interaction and the role of affordances in shaping pretend play activity. One advantage of this re-characterization of pretense is that it may help us better understand the role of shared meanings and interacting in systemic therapies, which use playing to enhance dialog in therapy rather than to uncover hidden meanings. We conclude with bringing together findings from therapeutic practice and philosophical considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the conclusive phase of the psychotherapy of a young man who suffered from Asperger's syndrome. The patient had been referred as an adolescent, at which time he was very isolated and spent most of his life in the company of countless imaginary friends that were quasi-delusional constructs. After several years of therapy, the patient was able to relinquish this fantasy world and his bizarre interests, and become involved and successful in his studies. His emotional development, however, was still stuck. Meltzer's theory of the aesthetic conflict and his ideas concerning the impasse at the threshold of thedepressive position contributed to throwing light on this phase of the psychotherapeutic process, and finally helped the patient to emerge from his upside-down world and begin to acknowledge the value and beauty of intimate relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spontaneous imaginary companion (SIC) creation in childhood is a typical imaginative play behaviour associated with advanced sociocognitive skills; however, the direction of causality has not been established. To investigate this experimentally, researchers must determine whether children can create, on request, qualitatively equivalent imaginary companions (ICs) to those created spontaneously. We examined whether children could create ICs, and how these compared to SICs. Nine elementary school children were encouraged to create ICs in a 3‐month intervention. Accounts of elicited ICs were compared with an age‐matched sample of interviewees with SICs. Seven children maintained ICs for 6 months post intervention. Template analysis of IC interviews found four themes: Realistic Play, Multifaceted IC Mind, Utility of the IC, and Elicited IC Across Time. Analysis suggests elicited and SICs were similar in nature and utility, although intervention ICs tended to have animal rather than human appearances. Findings support the argument that children can be encouraged to create ICs similar to SICs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many mental phenomena involve thinking about people who do not exist. Imagined characters appear in planning, dreams, fantasizing, imaginary companions, bereavement hallucinations, auditory verbal hallucinations, and as characters created in fictional narratives by authors. Sometimes these imagined persons are felt to be completely under our control, as when one fantasizes about having a great time at a party. Other times, characters feel as though they are outside of our conscious control. Dream characters, for example, are experienced by dreamers as autonomous entities, and often do things that frighten and surprise dreamers. Some imagined persons, such as characters in fiction, start off under conscious control of the author, but over time, can appear to gain an illusion of independent agency. I propose an explanation for different autonomy attributions: characters are by default non-autonomous, unless their personalities are well-practiced. Characters become autonomous because modeling their thinking has become automatized, like many other well-practiced activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been suggested that children's drawings are associated with their representation ability. However, there is little research on the cognitive basis of drawing in young children. In this study, we investigated the relationship between drawing, language ability, and the presence of imaginary companions (ICs) in children aged between three and six. We found that children with higher drawing scores and more number of colours used had higher receptive and expressive language, and language concepts. Further, children with higher drawing scores and more number of colours used were likely to have ICs. These findings demonstrate that the cognitive basis for drawing is based on the ability of children to grasp representations and images. New findings have shed light on the underlying mechanisms linking children's drawings and cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Parapsychology is the property of Rhine Research Center and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Some children form an attachment to a variety of inanimate objects, such as cloths or soft toys, referred to as attachment objects. This study examined the developmental change in children's behaviours toward their attachment objects to understand the role of such objects through an online survey of 700 parents with 0- to 9-year-old children, of whom 417 currently had attachment objects. Zero- and one-year-olds selected cloths and soft toys equally and used them with their mouth or skin, whereas older children preferred soft toys and personified them. Our results suggest that the role of attachment objects changes with age and that attachment objects contribute to reducing stress responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Dissociative disorders, such as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), are thought to develop in response to overwhelming trauma experienced in early childhood. Although viewed as originating in childhood, DID is most often not identified and treated until adulthood. This is concerning, as clinicians assert that prognosis is better when DID is diagnosed and treated at a younger age. It is important to identify potential early markers of pathological dissociation. One avenue of research has noted a much higher incidence of imaginary companions (ICs) in those who develop dissociative disorders than in normative samples. In the normative literature, ICs are considered common in normal development, aiding the child in developmental tasks in a transitory, compensatory manner. Few studies to date have attempted to compare and contrast the phenomenon of ICs in normative versus dissociative populations, although such research may reveal clues to identifying pathological dissociation at a younger age. This paper discusses the phenomenon of ICs, development of pathological dissociation, and what can be concluded from existing research. Suggestions for future research follow. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Reports of childhood imaginary companions (IC) sometimes contain "creepy or spooky" perceptions or themes that suggest such occurrences could be overlooked or disguised forms of a "ghostly episode" or "entity encounter experience." This idea was explored via a content analysis of vetted narratives from the Reddit website involving ICs with haunt-type features (n = 143). We tested whether the phenomenology of these experiences: (a) show an "Age x Gender x Anxiety" effect consistent with the assumed psychology of focus persons in poltergeist-like experiences; (b) map to Houran et al.'s (2019b) Rasch hierarchy of anomalies associated with ghostly episodes per the Survey of Strange Events (SSE); and (c) correspond to a specific type of "haunt condition" (i.e., spontaneous, primed, lifestyle, fantasy, or illicit). Results indicated that ICs attributed to "ghosts" corresponded to higher SSE scores. Experients' gender and inferred anxiety likewise showed significant and positive associations with SSE scores. Finally, the SSE features of ghostly IC experiences most strongly correlated to the phenomenologies of "spontaneous" and "induced" haunt conditions as reported in Houran et al. (2019b). We discuss the results in terms of some ICs being anomalous or exceptional human experiences that might require approaches beyond developmental and clinical psychology to understand fully their contents, structure, and ultimate nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central aspect of inclusion is to grant all children opportunities to participate and gain from a fellowship in school. However, some categorised groups of children are more prone to segregation and exclusion than others. Drawing on philosopher Ian Hacking's theories of the interactive relationship between how categories influence the categorised, the structures children are subjected to in schools affect how a child constructs her or his identity. The empirical data of this article are based upon a child (Will) labelled as intellectually disabled who spends most of his time in school segregated from his peers. In this segregated context, he has constructed a universe of imaginary companions and pretended identities (roles) that he frequently interacts with and enters. In relation to the attitudes, approaches and organisational practices that educational institutions subject groups of children to, the discussion questions whether the ascribed roles and function of Will's imaginary universe is a result of and/or a response to the institutional structures in which he finds himself. If this is the case, the educational system, from policy to practice, has to ask itself what kinds of people do they wish to construct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having an imaginary companion (IC) is an example of children's pretend play. However, most research regarding children's ICs is from Western cultures. In this study, the prevalence of ICs was assessed among Japanese children (2‐ to 9‐year‐old children, N = 800). The developmental (age), biological (sex), and environmental (birth order) effects on Japanese children's ICs were also assessed. Moreover, whether IC status can be an indicator of fantasy orientation in Japanese children was examined. The results revealed that the prevalence of the invisible friend was relatively rare, but the personified object was prevalent in Japanese children. Age and sex, but not birth order, significantly affected the prevalence of ICs in Japan. Moreover, IC status significantly indicated children's fantasy orientation. The results suggest that the characteristics of Japanese children's ICs are partly different from those in Western children. Social‐cultural contexts can affect this difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated relationships between Chinese children's imaginary companions (ICs) and peer relationships and social competence in 160 children, aged 5–6 years old. Children and their mothers participated in the interviews regarding the details of the children's ICs, including the type of the companion and the quality of the child–IC relationship. Peer relationships were assessed using sociometric nomination and perceived popularity nomination. Teachers rated children's social competence. Here, 55 children (34.3%) were deemed to have engaged in imaginary companion play. There was no relationship between imaginary companion types and child–IC relationship qualities. Children with invisible friends received more positive nominations than children with personified objects. Children with egalitarian relationships received more positive nominations and popularity nominations, but fewer negative nominations and unpopularity nominations than children with hierarchical relationships. Compared with children with hierarchical relationships, teachers rated the children with egalitarian relationships higher in social competence. The results suggest that imaginary companion types and relationship qualities may represent different dimensions of imaginary companions, calling attentions to the different mechanisms underlying imaginary companion types and relationship qualities with respect to social functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the deficits observed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is impaired imaginative play. One form of imaginative play common in many typically developing (TD) children is having an imaginary companion (IC). The occurrence of ICs has not been investigated extensively in children with ASD. We examined differences in parent report of IC between TD and ASD populations in 215 (111 with ASD) gender-matched children aged between 2 and 8 years. Findings indicate that significantly fewer children with ASD created ICs, although there were many between-group similarities in IC forms and functions. Results are discussed in terms of qualitative differences in play, social attributions, and how children with ASD conceptualize their ICs’ minds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance begins to have its effect long before the encounter with it, beginning with the first thing we read or hear about it, which may even be more memorable than the work itself; and its work continues in the thoughts and conversations that take place afterward: dialogues and exchanges that may be responding to written accounts as much as to experiences of the work themselves. Critical writing is part of this cycle of making and imagining. It can shape the contexts in which work is made and received, playing not just a responsive role but actively shaping how and what it is possible to make, see, do, and say. And critical writing is also shaped by the circumstances in which it is written, as part of systems of production and distribution. This article gives examples of a number of initiatives by individual writers, artist collectives, and festivals that test forms of critical writing that are as experimental as the practices to which they relate. Drawing on the author's experience running workshops in critical writing practice, it takes inspiration from the expanded field of writing as theorized and practiced in performance writing, placing these ideas in relation to a writing practice that conceives itself as 'criticism'. It is intended as a practical guide that might be used by writers or workshop leaders to cultivate their own critical writing projects, and to inspire imaginative thinking about writing and conversation as creative practices in their own right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although social play is common to many species, humans are unique in their ability to extract some of the benefits of social play through imagination. For example, in play with imaginary companions (ICs), children often practice skills that might be useful for later adaptive social, relational, and emotional functioning. While play with ICs does not provide the same immediate feedback that play with real others affords, this imagined, quasisocial context allows children to experiment with or rehearse events that might occur in real relationships. This symbolic enactment of social relationships might afford opportunities to experience not just social situations but all manner of positive and negative emotions in a risk-free way. In addition, children's interactions with real others around their ICs allow for negotiation of social roles in real relationships. ICs also provide a forum for psychological distance that might help young children manage their real relationships and engage in processes such as negotiation and cooperation, which are needed for successful social adaptation. Although play with ICs is clearly not of adaptive value in an evolutionary sense, for the children who create them, ICs might hold psychological significance for adaptive social development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes expanding four existing criteria for imaginative play in view of recent advances in sociocultural perspectives on the study of human development. Imaginative play is commonly defined as intrinsically motivated, open ended, pleasure seeking, and an escape from reality. Grounded in sociocultural research, and, as such, in the relation between individual and social and cultural environment, we argue that these four criteria should shift from assumptions to research questions: What are the motives for imaginative play? What are the goals for imaginative play? What affective dimensions emerge in imaginative play? What, how, and why do features of reality and imagination emerge through play? Expanding definitional criteria in this fashion enables researchers to remain open to variations in an individual's experience over time, across participants, and cultural variations rather than imposing dominant cultural assumptions as explanatory heuristics. Implications for research and education are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including ethical issues in teaching profession, the adoption of imaginary companions among children, and implementation of basic principles by teachers in Finland.

Over the past two decades, and not unlike other Southern Ocean rim countries, Chile has experienced a series of fundamental changes in its engagement with the Antarctic. This article provides an exploration into how these changes are shaping the formation of new local and national Antarctic social imaginaries. Through an account of a digital storytelling project carried out in the Antarctic Peninsula in 2012 and 2013 with young Chilean students, the article first examines cultural production processes at play in the configuration of a contemporary Antarctic national imaginary in Chile, arguing that such processes operate through a set of overlapping symbolic and material arrangements. Second, it reflects on how a performative focus on the experiences of young people doing science in Antarctica provides an innovative shift for understanding digital storytelling not only in terms of media democracy, but also rethinking its expediency as a novel mode of science diplomacy and democratisation of science. Third, and in framing the creative engagement process, the article considers the importance of bringing attention to thinking about globalism from the southern hemisphere in the context of the increasing significance that the Antarctic region holds for Southern Ocean rim countries. Highlighting the challenge of developing science–citizens interfaces, the article concludes by suggesting that we consider the complex entanglements between geopolitics, science and citizenship in a broader setting if we are to acknowledge that citizens’ engagement with critical scientific debates and decisions that affect their futures is today more pertinent than ever. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the trends in motion pictures direction, the international conference "Cinema at the End of the World," and the factors of decolonising film movements.

Imaginary companions ( ICs) are purported to bolster children's coping and self-competence, but few studies address this claim. We expected that having/not having ICs would distinguish children's coping strategies and competence less than type of companion (i.e., personified object or invisible friend) or quality of child- IC relationship (i.e., egalitarian or hierarchical). We interviewed 72 three- to six-year-olds and their mothers about children's coping strategies and competence; teachers rated competence. Mothers reported ICs. IC presence and type did not differentiate coping strategies, but children with egalitarian relationships chose more constructive/prosocial coping strategies, and teachers rated them more socially competent than children with hierarchical child- IC relationships. Mothers related ICs to cognitive competence. Findings highlight (1) modest relations between imaginary relationships and coping/competence; (2) distinctions between mothers' perceptions and IC functions; and (3) that ICs parallel real relationships in that different dimensions (presence, type/identity, and relationship quality) might be unique contributors to children's socioemotional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two studies sought to determine if pretend play has occurred throughout the lifespans of two communities of young Western adults. First, 10 improvisers were asked to define the words “play” and “pretend,” recount episodes of pretend play in their early childhood, elementary school, adolescence, and adulthood, and relate the benefits of their engagement in pretend play. Second, 49 graduate students answered open-ended and dichotomous-response questionnaire items modeled after the first study. In both studies, participants offered meanings of pretend and play that align with definitions of children's play and offered personal, life-span episodes and benefits of pretend play. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The topography of Childhood Imaginary Companions (CICs) shares many features with non-pathological auditory hallucinations in adulthood, but the possible link between pathological auditory hallucinations (PAHs) experienced by people diagnosed with psychotic disorders and the presence of CICs is unclear. We explore this under-researched area by means of qualitative research. The experience of CICs and other childhood experiences, onset of PAHs and recovery was explored using in-depth semi-structured interviews with six adults. The key themes revealed by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis were that all participants had CICs which served a protective function and that their CIC evoked negative reactions from parents. CICs and PAHs were distinct experiences and half of the participants still experienced their CIC. The findings support a model whereby the development of pathological and non-pathological hallucinations in adulthood is mediated by life events. Clinical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Role-play (i.e., pretending in which children imagine and act out the part of another individual) was assessed with child interviews and parent questionnaires about invisible friends, personified objects, and pretend identities in a sample of 208 young children. Children who engaged in role-play did not differ from other children in age or vocabulary comprehension. However, they were better able to generate a pretend conversation than other children and were rated by their parents as less shy. The overall pattern of results suggests that the capacity to interact with imaginary others (in and out of the lab) is more closely associated with individual differences in personality than developmental level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theory of mind (ToM) research has been carried out in relation to a variety of human and nonhuman agents such as parents, friends, God, Mayan forest spirits, and animals. The present study adds a new agent to the list—the imaginary/invisible friend. Three types of ToM tasks were administered to 36 children, ages 2 to 8, who had invisible friends at the time of the tasks: occluded picture, background knowledge, and surprising contents tasks. The knowledge attributed to imaginary companions was compared to the knowledge attributed to God, as well as to a human and to a dog. Results showed that younger children tended to attribute knowledge to all agents, including imaginary friends. Older children treated God differently from all other agents, but the invisible friend was also treated differently from the human and the dog. Implications regarding cognitive development and anthropomorphism are considered, as well as for the in-between character of invisible friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the plausibility of using studies of imaginative play to illuminate and explain the contemporary prevalence andpopularity of religious imaginal dialogue. Emphasis is given to conceptual considerations arisingfrom the application of recent findings in the neuroscience of social cognition and cognitive theories of childhood development to the study of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article asks why adults play dress-up and investigates the role of object play in the making of magical thinking and the reforming of adult identity. The author looks at a wide spectrum of narratives and their genres—the fairy tale "Cinderella," the film comedy Some Like it Hot, the epistolary novel Pamela, the film melodrama Now, Voyager, the psychoanalytical case study of "Miss K.," and the memoir My Judy Garland Life. She asserts that these narratives help define what constitutes "a woman's story" as a story of transformation by setting its representation in relation to objects or aesthetic worlds, into which the woman changes or immerses herself with the same intensity and single-mindedness as a child at play. The author draws on the works of psychoanalyst Christopher Bollas to explain the transformational object seeking and aesthetic moment of these narrative representations and argues they model a woman's longing for transformation and make it imaginable to the adult mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previously an identified case of a koro-like syndrome experienced in a person with Intellectual Disability with an internalized imaginary companion (IIC) was presented. After an assessment of the IIC, the baby was banished, without the therapist’s help, while his New Me behavior was reinforced. The banishment was ultimately temporary, and the baby ICC continued to exert its influence via first a koro symptom then taking control of his body. Upon follow up, a comprehensive assessment identified that there were about ten imaginary companions in total, whereas three of them were directly related to sex offending. The basic dynamic involved early trauma and a female/child oriented lifestyle interacting with gender, sexual differentiation and depersonalization disorders which influenced the creation of antisocial imaginary companions and resultant sex offenses. The presence of PTSD, Gender Identity, Atypical Depersonalization and Schizoid Personality Trait Disorders should also be investigated when encountering cases of koro. A comprehensive history and dynamics of the case are presented to add to the limited fund of information regarding these types of rare forensic-clinical cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated the referential communication skills of children with imaginary companions (ICs). Twenty-two children with ICs aged between 4 and 6 years were compared to 22 children without ICs (NICs). The children were matched for age, gender, birth order, number of siblings, and parental education. All children completed the Test of Referential Communication ( Camaioni, Ercolani & Lloyd, 1995 ). The results showed that the children with ICs performed better than the children without ICs on the speaker component of the task. In particular, the IC children were better able to identify a specific referent to their interlocutor than were the NIC children. Furthermore, the IC children described less redundant features of the target picture than did the NIC children. The children did not differ in the listening comprehension component of the task. Overall, the results suggest that the IC children had a better understanding of their interlocutor's information requirements in conversation. The role of pretend play in the development of communicative competence is discussed in light of these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a teacher as a being of relations—both internal and external—by exploring the nature of a figure of the internal plane that accompanies a teacher in her pedagogical adventure. This figure is a superaddressee,1 a third listener, who, as the author argues, should be expected to enter a classroom together with a teacher. A superaddressee plays at least two roles. First, it serves as a shortcut to a meaningful relationship and, in this role, takes care of a teacher's need to be known, as well as helps further dialogic relationships. Second, it offers a loophole from imperfect understanding and, in this role, addresses a teacher's need for noncoincidence and protection, as well as protects a pedagogical relationship from a proverbial dead end. It is argued that one of the ways for students to honor their teacher as a being of relations is to know and honor his or her superaddressee(s). In turn, a teacher is responsible for honoring her own superaddressees. In the end, both a teacher and students benefit from an enhanced relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last century, investigation of pretend companions has developed as an emerging field. Although pretend companions are a commonplace childhood phenomenon and perhaps an epitome of children's imagination, that topic received little attention before the end of the 19th century. Only since the last decade has attention to it truly begun to burgeon. Broad developments in the history of thought and research on pretend companions fall into 6 stages: (a) early history, (b) early theory, (c) earliest empirical research, (d) midcentury lull, (e) a renewal of empirical attention, and (f) emergence into a significant field whose investigators are committed to reliable, increasingly sophisticated methods and to the examination of pretend companions within the broader context of pretend play. Following depictions of the field's past and current status, the authors present future directions for its progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This investigation focused on the friendship concepts of pre-school-aged children. Eighty-four 3- to 5-year-old children responded to questions about social provisions, or benefits of relationships, available from reciprocal friends (both children in a pair nominate each other as friends), unilateral friends (one child nominates the other), non-friends (neither child of a pair nominates the other), and imaginary friends (for those who had them). Results indicated that reciprocal and imaginary friends were the best sources of social provisions, followed by unilateral friends and non-friends. Major implications are that children draw distinctions between reciprocal and unilateral friends based on the levels of social provisions available in these relationships, and that relationship schemas underlying relationships with imaginary companions may be akin to those for reciprocal friends. Children's friendship schemata may also differ by gender, as girls discriminated more than boys between reciprocal and unilateral friends for the social provision of companionship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parents are often solicited as reporters on their children's imaginary companions (ICs), but the correspondence between their reports and children's descriptions of pretend friends has received little attention. Sixty 4-year-old children and their parents provided descriptions of the children's interest in fantasy play, and 40 of these pairs also reported on children's ICs (20 on invisible friends and 20 on personified objects such as dolls). Results indicated that reports from parents of children with ICs matched their children's reports for involvement in fantasy play better than those of parents of children without ICs. For both IC groups, parents' reports concurred with children's for IC form, sex and physical description, but overall, parent–child agreement was higher for invisible friends than for personified objects. Results imply that parents may be better reporters of normative developmental processes that are slightly atypical than those that are common to most children. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports the dissociation of the child from reality. Evaluation on the relationship of the child to imaginary friend; Significance of the attachment bond; Source of therapeutic action.

An imaginary companion (IC) is a frequently encountered childhood fantasy, invisible to anyone but the child, who may be named, addressed or played with. Whether the presence of an IC is a normal developmental feature has not been determined. We examined psychometric measures and the presence/absence of childhood IC in a sample of 850 mentally healthy adolescents. 17.6% of our subjects, more often females, reported having had such a companion. Subjects who reported having had an IC in childhood exhibited higher levels of distress and emotional discontrol, displayed prolonged transitional object attachment and immature modes of coping with stress. Thus, although childhood imaginary companionship is not indicative of psychopathology, it may denote a vulnerability for adolescent perturbation and difficulty in coping with emotionally laden situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the use of the imaginary companion by normal children, two to five years of age. Some existing literature on the imaginary companion is reviewed. Three case presentations demonstrate the use of the imaginary companion and its effect on ego development. Major findings are the prevalence of the mechanism of splitting and the use of the imaginary companion as transitional phenomenon by the children. An ensuing discussion relates an object relations understanding of the normal developmental use of splitting and transitional phenomena to the case presentations. The imaginary companion is viewed as a transitional self on the developmental lines of narcissism and object relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY Previous investigators have identified several intellective and personality variables thought to be related to imaginary companion phenomena in young children. In the current study, the presence or absence of imaginary companions was assessed and related to intelligence, several creativity measures, and waiting ability in 84 preschool children comprised equally of boys and girls. No significant differences were found for these major variables between those children who had imaginary companions and those who did not. The findings arc compared with previous descriptive, and empirical literature on imaginary companions. Directions for future research on imaginary companion phenomena are briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating children's perceptions of medical and psychological disorders is important as it increases our understanding of how children view themselves and others, and also facilitates the development of effective intervention strategies with this population. The present investigation examined how children viewed imaginery peers who were described as suffering from various forms of medical or psychological disorders. Four written vignettes were employed, each describing imaginary children who varied on dimensions of type of disorder (Medical/Psychological) and severity of the problem (Mild/Severe). Thirty-four boys and girls, aged 9-13 years, read the four vignettes and completed a written questionnaire assessing their evaluations of each character in terms of diagnosis, etiology, prognosis, effective treatment strategies, and desirability of the described peer as a friend. The results indicated that children can discriminate between medical and psychological disorders in terms of the above factors. Interestingly, the data indicated that children viewed an acting-out peer (i.e., the Mild-Psychological vignette) as having more severe problems than an hallucinating child (i.e., the Severe-Psychological vignette). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]