Relations Between Fantasy Orientation, Pretense and Parental Attitudes

• In Event: Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Topic - Cognitive Processes

Abstract

When children are manipulating reality, some of them engage in imaginary play or think fantastically (e.g., having imaginary friends) whereas others are more likely to stay within reality boundaries in their thoughts and games (e.g., playing house). These kinds of differences in children’s reality vs. fantasy preferences in their play and activities might be attributed to their fantasy orientation (FO; Singer & Singer, 1990). FO is considered as a spectrum and individual differences in FO might be related to parents' attitudes toward fantasy and play behavior (Gilpin et al., 2015; Gleason, 2005).
In this current study, we examined the relations between children’s FO, pretense, and parents’ attitudes toward their child’s play behavior. We expected that FO predicts children’s pretense. Further, parental attitudes regarding play behavior were expected to predict children’s both FO and pretense.
Seventy-eight 3- to 5-year-old children (44 girls; Mage=47months, SD = 6.3 months) participated in the study. To measure pretense, the pantomime task (Overton & Jackson, 1973) was administered. Children’s FO was measured with a behavioral book preference task and the FO interview which was adapted from the imaginative play predisposition interview (Taylor & Carlson, 1997). In the book preference task, children were asked to choose one of the two storybooks to take home with them- one of the books was reality and the other was fantasy themed. In the FO interview, children were asked questions about their daily life activities (e.g., favorite book) and their answers were coded as reality (e.g., playing with blocks) or fantasy (e.g., pretending to be Batman). The parents also completed the parental attitudes questionnaire which is involved questions about their opinions about their child’s play behavior (e.g., functions of play).
The results showed that similar to earlier findings (e.g., Taggart et al., 2018), children were more reality-oriented in their daily life preferences in the FO interview. However, girls preferred more fantasy-oriented activities compared to boys. Children’s FO in the interview and book preference task were unrelated to each other. However, they both separately predicted children’s pretense. FO, measured with the interview, predicted pretense in the pantomime task only in boys, p = 0.40. There was also an interaction between gender and FO in the book preference task, choosing the fantasy book rather than the realistic one predicted pretend behavior only in girls, p = .01. Parent’s positive attitudes regarding pretense predicted higher FO in their child, p = .045. Further, considering pretend play as educative predicted higher FO only in boys, p =.022.
Overall, although there is a widespread belief about children’s high involvement in fantasy, when it is asked in an interview, children seem to prefer real activities more than fantasy activities. Also, the results demonstrate that the relations between children’s FO, pretend play, and parental attitudes vary according to the children’s gender. Future studies should examine further implications of gender differences in FO and the effects of parents’ gendered attitudes on children’s play behavior.

Authors

• Hatice Seyma Kara, Bogazici University
  Presenting Author

• Ege Kamber, Brock University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Deniz Tahiroglu, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi (BOUN)
  Non-Presenting Author