Mother‐Child Fantasy Play and Social Status of Young Children

The socialization basis for young children's capacity to engage in social fantasy play was investigated in relationship to children's social status. Children (age range: 54‐80 months) of high and low social status were videotaped while engaged in fantasy play with their mothers. Extrapolating from a study by Connolly and Doyle (1984), it was expected that the high status dyads would produce fantasy play utterances in a larger amount and of a higher level of complexity than the low status dyads. The high status dyads were expected to be more characterized by positive affect and the low status dyads more by negative effect. With respect to emotional climate, the two status groups turned out to be different as expected. However, the expected differences with respect to amount and complexity of fantasy play utterances were not found. Results are discussed in relationship to mother‐child and child‐child interaction and to the role of fantasy play in the development of social skills.