Poster #17 - Let It Go: Media Influences on Imaginary Companions in Early Childhood

• In Event: Poster Session 18

Abstract

Children are surrounded by a nearly limitless array of media characters in streaming programs, mobile apps, websites, and video games. Despite a growing body of literature on parasocial relationships (PSRs), the one-way ties imagined with media characters, the extent to which exposure to media influences pretend play and the imaginary characters (ICs) children create in early childhood is unknown. Diverse and prevalent access has engendered concern that the media/play relation may be driven less by children’s creativity and more by media (Levin & Rosenquest, 2001). On one hand, media characters that promote PSRs are often effective educational tools (Calvert et al., 2020); however, pretense with media-based versus generic toys is more imitative/scripted, lower-level, and less transformative (Chang-Kredl & Howe, 2010), suggesting the depth of imaginative play might be compromised by heightened media influence. The current study investigated whether children’s ICs show evidence of media influence, and if so, whether that influence was curated by the child or resembled PSRs.

435 ethnically diverse children (Mage = 56.19, SD = 10.82; 257 girls) described ICs in interviews conducted in prior studies in three US labs. IC descriptions were coded by gender/age relative to the child and as adhering to a specific media character (yes/no) according to name, physical appearance, residence. We also summed these variables for an overall measure of media character adherence (range = 0-3). We coded (yes/no) the characters’ presence in 9 media sources (i.e., TV, movie, book, comic, videogame, toy, merchandising, mythology/folktales, religion) and summed them as a measure of media saturation.

Of the 435 children interviewed, only 56 (12%) had ICs connected to media; and only 44 (9.5%) ICs adhered to one or more media-inspired features. Adherence most often included the character’s name and appearance but not residence (62.5%). Media-based ICs (MBICs) were more likely to be of the same gender as the child rather than opposite or nongendered, 𝞆2(1, 40) = 14.44, p < .001, although the same was also true of nonMBICs, 𝞆2(2, 266) = 72.66, p < .001. MBICs were not more likely than nonMBICs to be the same age as the child (28.6% for both), but a higher proportion of MBICs (54.3%) than nonMBICs (35.3%) were older than the child, 𝞆2(1, 40) = 14.44, p < .001. Adherence correlated positively with media saturation (range = 0 to 8 [M = 5.09, SD = 2.49]), r(44) = .88, p < .001.

The concern that media has an outsized influence on children’s play was unfounded in these data. Children retained significant creative control, even over ICs with media ties, implying that children exercise agency in their curation of media in imaginative play (Chang-Kredl & Howe, 2010). The fact that characters chosen were same-gender and older suggests that efforts to educate via media should use characters with whom children can identify, but also admire. Although many children create ICs and engage in PSRs (Aguiar et al. 2019; Taylor, 1999), these imagined relationships appear to be distinct and hold different developmental affordances.

Authors

• Emily Ruben, Wellesley College
  Presenting Author

• Jivonsha Amelia Ffrench, Wellesley College

• Hea Jung Lee, University of California - Riverside

• Naomi R. Aguiar, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater

• Rebekah Richert, University of California - Riverside

• Tracy Gleason, Wellesley College