I have a friend you cannot see : comparing creativity levels between Swedish and Maltese children with and without imaginary friends

Abstract

This dissertation replicates a Swedish study by Hoff (2003) and attempts to investigate the relationship between creativity and imaginary friends. Gender differences have also been taken into account. 79 children from four different schools around Malta participated in this study. Two tests were conducted measuring creativity. Furthermore, an Imaginary Friend questionnaire was used in order to investigate this topic further. 49.4% of participants reported having an imaginary playmate. No gender differences were found with regard to creativity. Nonetheless, some divergences across genders as well as compared to Hoff (2003) arose with respect to the profiles about the pretend playmate. According to the activity questionnaire, children with imaginary friends are significantly (p=<0.0005) more creative. In general, results between the two studies tally, except for the Unusual Uses test score of children with and without imaginary friends, where I found that the difference is not significant and Hoff (2003) noted that it is. This may be due to the sample size of the two studies.