Non-parent college students' attitudes toward imaginary companions

Parental support is defined as a key factor in the development of imagination, including the maintenance of imaginary companions (Singer & Singer, 1990; Taylor, 1999). Despite the fact that many parents have positive attitudes toward imaginary companions and support the interaction of their children with imaginary companions, such positive attitudes are not adopted by all parents (Taylor, 1999). Even though there are some children who create imaginary companions in spite of the negative attitudes of their parents, parental disapproval is considered one of the reasons why children abandon their imaginary companions after preschool (Taylor, 1999). Given the importance of the positive or negative contributions of parents in terms of both creating and sustaining an imaginary companion, it is not surprising that parental attitudes toward imaginary companions have been studied by various researchers (Gleason, 2004; Mauro, 1991; Taylor, 1999). However, research in this area is still very limited, and non-parent populations are usually not examined.

Last summer, I conducted a research project to study the attitudes of non-parent college students toward imaginary companions Based on the relatively more negative attitudes of parents toward older children’s developing or maintaining imaginary companions (Taylor, 1999), it was hypothesized that non-parent college students would have more negative attitudes toward older children than younger children with respect to the child’s interaction with imaginary companions. It was also hypothesized that in parallel with the findings that mothers are more likely than fathers to adopt positive attitudes toward their children’s imaginary companions (Gleason, 2005; Mauro, 1991), female college students would show more positive attitudes toward imaginary companions than their male counterparts. Finally, as the positive or negative attitudes of parents do not differ according to the gender of the child (Gleason, 2005), it was hypothesized that gender of the child would not yield differences in the attitudes of non-parent college students.

73 non-parent college students (38 females and 35 males) participated in the study. Materials used in the study consisted of two different versions of a survey. In both versions, the section on the attitudes toward a child’s interaction with an imaginary friend consisted of two vignettes. In the first vignette, participants were asked to read a short description of a 5-year-old child interacting with an imaginary friend and rate on a 7-item Likert scale (a) how concerned they would be; (b) how harmful having an imaginary friend would be for the child; (c) how beneficial having an imaginary friend would be for the child (d) whether they would think having an imaginary friend implies that the child has emotional problems. In order to assess whether children’s age has an effect on individuals’ attitudes, in the second vignette, participants were asked to read a short description of a 10-year-old child interacting with an imaginary friend. The two versions of the survey were identical except the child’s gender.

The study supported the hypothesis that non-parent college students have more negative attitudes toward older children than younger children with respect to the child’s interaction with imaginary companions. As expected, gender of the child did not yield differences in the attitudes of non-parent college students. Contrary to expectations, female participants did not have more positive attitudes toward children with imaginary companions than male participants. This finding may indicate that such attitudinal differences between females and males occur as a result of transition to traditional gender roles.

Despite its limitations, my study emphasized two future directions for research. First, the relatively negative attitudes of non-parent college students toward older children’s interactions with imaginary companions are worthy of further study. If further research confirms similar negative attitudes toward older children, such findings may be employed in explaining the factors that contribute to the reasons why older children abandon their imaginary companions. Second, a more comprehensive study of the similarities and differences between non-parent college students and parents would be useful in that it would reveal to what extent college students can be used as a sample when studying parental attitudes in particular and adult attitudes in general.