Chinese Children's Imaginary Companions and Theory of Mind: A Longitudinal Analysis

IF 1.6 3区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

International Journal of Psychology Pub Date : 2025-09-12 DOI:10.1002/ijop.70109

Qiyi Lin, Yingjia Leng, Nan Zhou, Shimin Chen, Xinyue Jiang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The relationship between imaginary companions (ICs) and the development of children's theory of mind (ToM) has aroused the interest of many researchers in the area of imaginary play. This study sought to investigate the potential causal relationships between ICs and ToM and between child–IC relationship quality and ToM using a longitudinal design. The present study included 104 Chinese preschool children and ran over approximately 13 months. IC status (with and without ICs) and child–IC relationship quality (egalitarian and hierarchical) were measured twice, at 1 month and 13 months. ToM was measured only once, at 7 months. Path analysis and bootstrap analysis with offset corrections were used to explore potential causal paths. The results revealed that ICs had a positive effect on ToM, but ToM could not predict IC status. No causal relationship existed between child–IC relationship quality and ToM in children with ICs at both Time 1 and 3. Children with higher scores on receptive vocabulary were more likely to create egalitarian child–IC relationships. Future researchers could further optimise the research design and investigate the internal mechanism of the existing causal relationships.

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中国儿童想象同伴与心理理论的纵向分析

想象同伴与儿童心理理论发展之间的关系引起了许多想象游戏研究者的兴趣。本研究试图通过纵向设计来探讨智力智力与智力智力之间的潜在因果关系，以及儿童智力智力关系质量与智力智力之间的潜在因果关系。目前的研究包括104名中国学龄前儿童，历时约13个月。在1个月和13个月时，分别测量IC状态（有和没有IC）和儿童IC关系质量（平等主义和等级）两次。仅在7个月时测量一次ToM。路径分析和带偏移校正的自举分析用于探索潜在的因果路径。结果表明，IC对ToM有正向影响，但ToM不能预测IC的状态。在时间1和时间3，ic患儿的儿童- ic关系质量与ToM之间不存在因果关系。接受性词汇得分较高的儿童更有可能建立平等的儿童-智力关系。未来的研究人员可以进一步优化研究设计，探索现有因果关系的内在机制。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

International Journal of Psychology PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-

CiteScore

6.40

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The International Journal of Psychology (IJP) is the journal of the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS) and is published under the auspices of the Union. IJP seeks to support the IUPsyS in fostering the development of international psychological science. It aims to strengthen the dialog within psychology around the world and to facilitate communication among different areas of psychology and among psychologists from different cultural backgrounds. IJP is the outlet for empirical basic and applied studies and for reviews that either (a) incorporate perspectives from different areas or domains within psychology or across different disciplines, (b) test the culture-dependent validity of psychological theories, or (c) integrate literature from different regions in the world.