Children with Imaginary Companions Focus on Mental Characteristics When Describing Their Real-Life Friends

Paige Davis; Elizabeth Meins; Charles Fernyhough

doi:10.1002/icd.1869

Children with Imaginary Companions Focus on Mental Characteristics When Describing Their Real-Life Friends

Paige Davis, Elizabeth Meins, Charles Fernyhough

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

25 Citations (Scopus)

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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	622-633
Number of pages	12
Journal	Infant and Child Development
Volume	23
Issue number	6
Early online date	13 May 2014
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.1869
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2014
Externally published	Yes

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10.1002/icd.1869Licence: CC BY

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Children with Imaginary Companions Focus on Mental Characteristics When Describing Their Real-Life Friends

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