Imaginary companions and peer acceptance

Abstract

Early research on imaginary companions suggests that children who create them do so to compensate for poor social relationships. Consequently, the peer acceptance of children with imaginary companions was compared to that of their peers. Sociometrics were conducted on 88 preschool-aged children; 11 had invisible companions, 16 had personified objects (e.g., stuffed animals animated by the child) and 65 had no imaginary companion. The three groups were compared on positive and negative nominations, social preference, social impact, and total number of reciprocal friends. Given the positive correlation between pretend play and social competence, fantasy predisposition was used as a covariate. The groups did not differ on number of positive nominations by peers, total number of reciprocal friends, or social preference scores. However, compared to their peers, children with personified objects had higher social impact scores, largely as a result of negative nominations. Attention is thus called to the differences between personified object and invisible imaginary companions, and to the underlying social cognition that may be involved in their creation.