Pretend companions (imaginary playmates): the emergence of a field.

Over the last century, investigation of pretend companions has developed as an emerging field. Although pretend companions are a commonplace childhood phenomenon and perhaps an epitome of children's imagination, that topic received little attention before the end of the 19th century. Only since the last decade has attention to it truly begun to burgeon.

Exoneration reduces adult conflict's effects on preschoolers' cognitions, behavioral distress, and physiology.

In this experiment, the authors investigated the influence of exoneration from blame on children's overt behavioral distress and physiological reactivity following the presentation of overheard adult conflict. The participants were 48 children (48-71 months of age) and their mothers. Through random assignment, the authors presented 16 children with statements that exonerated them from an overheard disagreement between two adults, did not address 16 during a similar disagreement, and presented 16 with a neutral discussion of difficulties.

Relations between children's attachments to their mothers and to security blankets.

Are attachments to security objects and mothers related? Do children securely and insecurely attached to mothers use security blankets differently? Following the Strange Situation procedure (M. D. S.