Most of our research has been concentrated on exploring and describing the relationships that some preschool-aged children have with imaginary companions. The phenomenon of imaginary companions has not received a great deal of attention in the psychological literature and is not well understood, so one goal of this research is to provide a definitive description of pretend friends with an eye toward how they might function in development. Studying the ways in which children talk about, and sometimes interact with, imaginary companions has the potential to illuminate how young children understand and think about social relationships in general. Our hope is that by thinking about imaginary companions as relationship partners, we may be able to figure out how they function within children’s social networks. Such information could lead to a better understanding of why some children create them and their functional significance in development.

According to our definition, imaginary companions come in two forms, invisible companions and personified objects. Invisible companions are often friends, as opposed to infants or elders, but they need not be human. There are probably as many different kinds of invisible friends in the world as there are children, including humans, animals, monsters and the like. Personified objects are frequently stuffed animals or dolls, and children often take care of them as though they were infants, or at least younger than the child themselves.