“I Got Some Swords and You're Dead!”: Violent Fantasy, Antisocial Behavior, Friendship, and Moral Sensibility in Young Children

Abstract

Relations between an early interest in violent fantasy and children's social understanding, antisocial and emotional behavior, and interactions with friends were investigated in 40 "hard-to-manage" preschoolers and 40 control children matched for gender, age, and school and ethnic background. Children were filmed alone in a room with a friend, and tested on a battery of cognitive tests, including false-belief, executive function, and emotion understanding tasks. Teachers reported on their friendship quality. At age 6 years, the children's understanding of the emotional consequences of antisocial and prosocial actions was studied. The hard-to-manage group showed higher rates of violent fantasy; across both groups combined, violent fantasy was related to poor executive control and language ability, frequent antisocial behavior, displays of anger and refusal to help a friend, poor communication and coordination of play, more conflict with a friend, and less empathic moral sensibility 2 years later. The usefulness of a focus on the content of children's pretend play-in particular, violent fantasy-as a window on children's preoccupations is considered.

Toward a refined view of aggressive fantasy as a risk factor for aggression: interaction effects involving cognitive and situational variables

“…In a study with elementary-and middle-school-age children living in urban neighborhoods, Guerra et al [2003] found positive links between violence exposure, violent fantasy, and aggressive behavior. Dunn and Hughes [2001] found that, compared to a control group, a group of preschool-age children who scored high on a conduct disorder scale exhibited higher rates of violent fantasy as assessed through pretend play episodes. In a related study on engagement in toy-weapon play, Watson and Peng [1992] found that pretend aggression was associated with increased real aggression rather than having a cathartic effect of reducing it.…”

Establishing the Contexts of Disruptive Behaviours and Psychological Implications among Pre-Primary and Primary School Pupils

“…As noted by Davey (2011) disruptive behavior result to impaired academic achievement, which usually leads to conflict with classmates. In line with this Coplan Gauinski-Molins, Lagace-Seguin and Wichman (2001), and Dunn and Hughes (2001) noted that children who persist in immature forms of solitary play such as wandering around aimlessly are at risk of manifesting disruptive behaviors.…”

“…The increased academic and social demands of formal schooling, as well as standards for behaviors are required from children are not usually met (Dunn & Hughes, 2001). Teachers report that these types of children have difficulty in working independently and also lack organization.…”

Children’s preferences for gender-typed objects and colours: a commentary from gender research in Spain

“…Children's gender-typed preferences for toys grow larger with development (Golombok & Hines, 2002); studies conducted in the US (Goldberg, Kashy & Smith, 2012), Sweden (Nelson, 2005) or the UK (Dunn & Hughes, 2001) have reported consistent patterns, indicating that girls prefer dolls, stuffed animals and educational toys, whereas boys prefer vehicles, action figures, tool sets or construction toys. In addition to differences in preferences, boys and girls show a stronger bias for toys stereotyped as own-gender than for cross-gender-typed or gender-neutral toys (Cherney, KellyVance, Gill, Ruane & Ryalls, 2003).…”