Kleinkinder, die stärkere Fähigkeiten im Rollenspiel zeigen, neigen dazu, beim Eintritt in die Grundschule weniger emotionale und Verhaltensschwierigkeiten zu erleben. Die Forschung liefert Belege dafür, dass die Förderung fantasievollen Spielens schon früh im Leben zu einer besseren langfristigen psychischen Gesundheit beitragen könnte.
Early pretend play is linked to better mental health years later
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Early pretend play is linked to better mental health years later
A recent study suggests that toddlers who show stronger abilities in pretend play tend to experience fewer emotional and behavioral difficulties as they enter primary school. Published in the Early Childhood Education Journal, the research provides evidence that encouraging imaginative play early in life could support better long-term mental health. The findings highlight the potential benefits of simple childhood activities on psychological well-being.
The researchers found that higher pretend play ability at ages two to three predicted fewer internalizing and externalizing problems at later ages. This positive association was observed primarily in the mental health evaluations provided by the early educators. The connection was noticeable when the children were aged four to five and persisted when they reached ages six to seven.
Primary caregivers also reported a small but significant link between early pretend play and fewer behavioral issues when the children reached ages six to seven. The fact that this relationship held true even after controlling for family background and language skills suggests that play has a unique role in development.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10643-026-02150-7
Makes sense. Pretend play is literally practice socialization. Kids play out scenarios so that they can experience them safely before experiencing them in real life.
There’s also an episode of Bluey on this. In the episode, McKenzie plays out a traumatic experience because it helps him work through it: [https://blueypedia.fandom.com/wiki/Space](https://blueypedia.fandom.com/wiki/Space)
“An interview with Joe Brumm reveals that the episode was inspired by play therapy.”
Great. Now which way round is the association?
That ‚could support‘ is doing a fair amount of lifting in the title.
Exercising a skill may improve lower ability in some cases.
They explicitly note ‚In addition, we did not investigate another possible direction of association, whereby good emotional regulation skills may lead to better quality pretend play. ‚
edit: I did not see on skimming the paper any discussion of pre-specified analysis and how they arrived at the subset of the whole data they did.
So this was an entirely correlational study. It did account for variables such as attachment and the like, but it’s not demonstrating causality. I think it’s overstepping by suggesting policy should be shaped by these findings, but it does highlight the need for experimental work investigating this link.
Aren’t autistic children known to dislike pretend play? So it’s more that autistic children have a tendency for mental health issues.