The authors investigated the prevalence and characteristics of children who experience or who have experienced imaginary companions. For the study, a self-administered questionnaire that sought information regarding the characteristics of children with and without imaginary companions was completed by 478 parents of children within the age range of 3 to 9.5 years. A significantly larger number of children with imaginary companions were reported to be first-born children, to be very imaginative, to incorporate myth in their play, and to explain events as magical. Overall, these results are interpreted to indicate that birth order, combined with characteristics such as imaginativeness and a predisposition to engage in fantasy, characterizes children with imaginary companions.

IThe purpose of this study was to investigate the language use of 40 children with imaginary companions (IC) and 40 children without imaginary companions (NIC) across two age levels: a younger group aged 4;O-5;ll and an older group aged 6;O-7;11.The study investigated the language of these children by examining their use of adverbial and relative clauses, complement clauses, colordinating conjunctions and modal types. The findings indicated that, compared with NICs, ICs used a significantly greater number of adverbial clauses, relative clauses, and and, with their use of but approaching significance. Overall, the results were interpreted as indicating that ICs use more mature language, and this demonstrates enhanced social-cognitive skills. It was concluded that the presence of imaginary companions is positively associated with language use and discourse competency of children.

This study investigated the specific fears, anxiety level, and temperament characteristics of children with and without imaginary companions. Mothers of children with and without imaginary companions (37 mothers in each condition) whose children were aged between 3.2 and 8.7 years were asked to complete the Fear Survey Schedule for Children -II Parent (FSSC-IIP), the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale -Parent (RCMAS-P), and the Short Temperament Scale for Children (STSC). Examination of mothers' ratings indicated no differences between groups on the fear and temperament scales. The scores for anxiety were significantly higher for imaginary companion children as a result of differences on the concentration and worry-over sensitivity subscales. However, the mean scores were still within the normal range. Consequently, it is concluded that whereas the presence of imaginary companions may be associated with some difference in levels of anxiety, overall there is no indication that children with imaginary companions experience emotional difficulties.fascinating aspect of children's development involves the occurrence of the imaginary companion. Despite claims that these companions are experienced by as many as 65% of children (Mauro,

This study investigated the ability of children with and without imaginary companions (N = 80) aged 4‐8 years to differentiate fantasy from reality. Following children's descriptions of a monster, a monster‐shaped silhouette was unexpectedly projected in the room. Video‐recordings of each child's reaction to the silhouette and responses to a subsequent series of questions indicated that a significantly larger number of imaginary companion than non‐imaginary companion children thought that an imaginary entity could be reflected in reality. However, as a number of nonimaginary companion children also thought that an imaginary entity could be reflected in reality, differences in children's level of credulity, rather than the presence or absence of the imaginary companion, was considered to account for the fantasy‐ reality confusion.

In this study, the author tested whether children with imaginary companions (ICs) have a different fantasy life than do children without ICs. To measure the fantasy life of the 74 children aged 3.2 to 8.7 years, the author modified the Children's Fantasy Interview (E. Rosenfeld, L. R. Huesmann, L. D. Eron, & J. V. Torney-Purta, 1982) to make it suitable for young children and focused on 5 aspects of fantasy life: (a) ICs, (b) dreams, (c) daydreams, (d) scary thoughts, and (e) pretend games. Consistent with the hypothesis, children who had ICs were more likely than were children without ICs to report (a) vivid imagery when daydreaming, (b) vivid imagery when playing pretend games, (c) mythical content for dreams, and (d) mythical content for pretend games.