Children's fantasy play and emotional understanding

Examined the relation between affective and cognitive processes in fantasy play and emotional understanding. Sixty-six children in the 1st and 2nd gra des played with puppets (Affect in Play Scale; Puss, 1993), answered questi ons about their understanding of emotions (Kusche Affective Interview-Revis ed; Kusche, Greenberg, & Beilke, 1988), and completed a measure of verbal i ntelligence (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III; Wechsler, 1991). The major finding of this study was that consistent, yet modest, relations were found between dimensions of fantasy play and emotional understanding. Cognitive dimensions of fantasy play, but not affect expression, were rela ted to facets of emotional understanding These relations were independent o f verbal ability. A composite fantasy play score accounted for a significan t amount of variance in a composite emotional understanding score when verb al ability was accounted for. Variations in the pattern of correlations for girls and boys suggest sex differences in the relation between fantasy pla y and emotional understanding. Implications for clinical research and inter ventions ape discussed.