The Validation of the Free Fantasy Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents: From Imaginary Playmate to "Dreamtime".

Renato Donfrancesco,Francesca Di Roma,Claudio Vezzani,Paola Gregori,Elda Andriola,Lucia Bigozzi,Giuliana Pinto,Renata Tambelli,Alessia Renzi,Maria Grazia Melegari,Angela Dibenedetto,Michela Di Trani

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01343

Abstract

Fantasy in children is a precocious and important skill. In normal subjects some imaginative events, very close to hallucinations (perception-like experiences), have been found. Therefore, a better knowledge on both fantasy and the difference between imagination and the external world is needed. The aims of this study are: (a) to validate a new questionnaire for fantasy in children and adolescents; (b) to test its clinical application in ADHD children. 1.707 participants aged 8–18 years were enrolled: 1557 were recruited from a survey in six schools, whereas 150 participants were recruited in an ADHD Center. They filled out a new questionnaire, the Free Fantasy Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents, FFQ. Statistical analyses were performed to validate the FFQ and to study five parameters of fantasy. Analyses showed good properties of the FFQ as regards factor structure and reliability. Descriptive analysis showed that: 10% of the adolescents frequently have fantasy with paracosmos and 9.5% sometimes have a fantasy with imaginary relatives. Moreover, in the 64.3% of participants of primary school, in the 34.5% of lower-secondary, and in the 27.4% of upper-secondary school Perception-like experiences, involving invisible but real personages, were found. Quality of fantasy and Lack of control on imagination are correlated with a high score in the Reality/Unreality Dimension and Perception-like experiences. As regards ADHD participants, the 40% of the group showed Perception-like experiences: the 21.66% of them reported a very high score in the dimension Reality/Unreality, have some dissociative symptoms, and the 3.33% presented a clear dissociative identity disorder. All were free from psychosis or neurologic disorders. A new questionnaire to study fantasy in children and adolescents was validated. Many children and adolescents of the general population declared Perception-like experiences. These events seem to be specific, and probably normal, features of the mind; they could be better named as “Dreamtime,” whereas only in extreme conditions they could represent a risk for dissociation.

Highlights

Imagination is developed early on to help children to process events, achieve mastery of their emotions, enrich their social understanding and develop their communication abilities (Taylor, 1999)
In a dimensional perspective, only the extreme of a continuum representing attenuated psychotic symptoms (APS), that we can name “perception-like” phenomena, could be defined as at risk or prodromal. This global uncertainty of the data in the literature opens a large field of exploration for students of the psychological development of children and adolescents because of the obvious questions that arise: how many children and adolescents really experience confusion between reality and imagination, how many times in their lives, and what is the impact on their developing mind? The theoretical frame of this paper is that a good beginning to studying these phenomena could be to define some parameters for a correct qualitative and quantitative description and definition of the several kinds of fantasy
Analysis 1 Our primary hypothesis about the possibility of producing a questionnaire as a tool to study the phenomenon of fantasy in children and adolescents was supported

Summary

Introduction

Imagination is developed early on to help children to process events, achieve mastery of their emotions, enrich their social understanding and develop their communication abilities (Taylor, 1999). In a dimensional perspective, only the extreme of a continuum representing APS, that we can name “perception-like” phenomena, could be defined as at risk or prodromal. This global uncertainty of the data in the literature opens a large field of exploration for students of the psychological development of children and adolescents because of the obvious questions that arise: how many children and adolescents really experience confusion between reality and imagination, how many times in their lives, and what is the impact on their developing mind? The five parameters of our theoretical vision are described below

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Conclusion