Relation Between Pretend Play Complexity and Social Competence in Early Childhood Education: A Mediation Model

Social competence is often considered of great importance for young children’s development and their future functioning in society. It is therefore critical to understand which variables are related to social competence at a young age. The current study’s main objective was to investigate the relation between the complexity of pretend play and social competence in early childhood. A model was tested connecting pretend play complexity to children’s social cognitive skills with their social-emotional behavior during pretend play as mediator. A sample of N = 248 children in early childhood education (aged 3–6) participated in the study. Data collection consisted of individual testing to measure children’s social cognitive skills and pretend play observations to indicate children’s pretend play complexity and social-emotional behaviors during pretend play. Outcomes of mediation analyses revealed no evidence for the hypothesized model connecting pretend play complexity to children’s social competence, through their social-emotional behavior during pretend play. Interestingly, pretend play complexity was related to children’s social-emotional behavior during pretend play. Future research is required to provide a better understanding of the relation between pretend play complexity and social competence.