Imaginary Friends Essay

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Imaginary friends are a very common phenomenon for young children. As of 2007, imaginary friends occurred in about sixty-five percent of children (Klausen & Passman, 2007). Karen Majors and Ed Baines gives the definition of imaginary friends as, “Imaginary friends are invisible characters that a child plays with and/or talk about over a period of several months or more and that has an air of reality for the child” (Majors & Baines, 2017). Imaginary friends are also known as pretend companions, imaginary companions, and imaginary playmates (Klausen & Passman, 2007). The children who have imaginary friends know their friend really well. When the children are asked what their imaginary friends look like, they have no problem describing them (Taylor …show more content…

They can even have more than one. In a different study, children listed off what their imaginary friend was. The imaginary friends included humans, nonhumans, and toys (Taylor & Cartwright, 1993). The nonhumans included birds, ghosts, and dogs (Taylor & Cartwright, 1993). The toys included a stuffed dog and a doll (Taylor & Cartwright, 1993). Some children changed what their imaginary friend was or what they looked like (Majors & Baines, 2017). The children with two or more imaginary friends had different types of friends. One child had a female and male companion (Taylor & Cartwright, 1993). Another child said he had one friend, but his parents said otherwise (Taylor & Cartwright, 1993). Then there were some children with multiple imaginary friends. These children usually had more than three imaginary friends. There is a stereotype of children with imaginary friends (Taylor & Mottweiler, 2008). The stereotype is that the child is shy, withdrawn, has very few friends, and has emotional problems (Taylor & Mottweiler, 2008). Even though some children may make up imaginary friends due to these problems, in most cases children have imaginary friends because they are fun to have (Taylor & Mottweiler, 2008). These imaginary companions usually help the children go through tough situations and hard

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