Preschoolers' characterizations of multiple family relationships during family doll play

Investigated 4-year-olds' depictions of family relationships during a semis tructured doll play task. Examined developmental and family correlates of t hese depictions, and their relative stability over a 1-month period. Forty- nine children related stories about happy, sad, mad, and worried families u sing dolls reflecting their own family configuration. For each story, coder s recorded (a) proportion of total story time devoted to each family dyad a nd (b) number of conflictive, aggressive, and affectionate acts per dyad. C hildren divided their focus during stories evenly between father-child, mot her-child, and father-mother relationships with child-sibling interactions occurring regularly among participants with siblings. Depictions of affecti on and aggression among family figures were relatively commonplace, related to mothers' reports of family climate, and stable across a 1-month period. Results substantiated preschoolers' awareness and discrimination of intraf amily relationship dynamics and provided some guidelines and cautions to pr actitioners who employ doll family assessments in their clinical work.