[The "familiarity" variable in maternal role playing in preschool children].

Abstract

The present investigation was effected in the context of several other studies involving mother role playing with dolls in children of both sexes aged 2 to 6. Previous studies had shown an interaction between several variables: sex of the child and of the doll, absence of toys representing maternal activities, naked or clothed dolls, playing in couples of same sex or different sexes. The present study involves a new factor: degree of familiarity between children. Three variables can be distinguished in the analysis of couples of friends: (1) exploratory activities of the body of the dolls: smaller children (boys and girls) explore the body for itself whereas older girls do it while assuming a maternal role and older boys take distance from this activity. (2) Involvement in mother role playing: girls are more involved than boys, older children have richer activities than the younger. (3) Choice of activity (mother role playing or other). Observation of activities in non-friends couples emphasize two factors. The first is the same as in couples of friends (exploration of the body of the dolls), the second being the emotional tone of play sessions. Children of both sexes are diversely tolerant of the non-friends situation. This has an important impact on the quality of playing and therefore on representations of playing and on identification behaviors. Analysis of this last factor in the context of the other findings on mother role playing suggests an evolution of mother role playing behaviors and leads to reformulate the parameters involved in the construction of representations of parental roles.