Pretend play: Longitudinal prediction of creativity and affect in fantasy in children

Abstract

Pretend play and creativity have been linked theoretically and empirically. In this article we investigate the ability of pretend play in first- and second-grade children to predict divergent thinking and affect in fantasy over a 4-year period. The follow-up sample consisted of 31 children in the fifth and sixth grades who had originally received the Affect in Play Scale (Russ, 1987, 1993; a standardized play task) and the Alternate Uses test (Wallach & Kogan, 1965) of divergent thinking as first and second graders. Four years later, they received an Affect in Fantasy Task (developed for this study) similar to the original play task, and the Alternate Uses test. As predicted, quality of fantasy and imagination in early play predicted divergent thinking over time, independent of IQ. In addition, cognitive and affective processes in early pretend play were significantly related to comparable processes on the later fantasy task. Early divergent-thinking scores were predictive of later divergent-thinking scores. Exploratory analyses did not find any relation between play and several other measures of creativity, or between divergent thinking and other creativity measures. The results lend support to the concept that affective and cognitive processes in pretend play are stable over time and are predictive of divergent thinking.