Children's age negatively moderates the pretend play–social competence relation, which weakens as children get older¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · quant-synthesis r2 · q3 · i0 negligible
Currency · newest study 2024 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i0 Age has a small negative effect on the relation between pretend play and social competence (g = −0.004), with the estimated correlation about 0.26 higher for 3-year-olds than for 8-year-olds. → Smits-van der Nat 2024

Evidence¶

Smits-van der Nat 2024¶

Smits-van der Nat, M., van der Wilt, F., Meeter, M., & van der Veen, C. (2024). The Value of Pretend Play for Social Competence in Early Childhood: A Meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-024-09884-z

q3 · i0 · quant-synthesis · r2

Meta-regression covariate result across kstudies = 34, kES = 188, with mean age of each study sample as the centered age predictor. The article states the estimated correlation "can be expected to be 0.26 higher" for 3-year-olds than for 8-year-olds.

"However, children’s age was found to have a small negative effect on the relation between pretend play and social competence (g = − 0.004, 95% CI [− 0.008, − 0.000], p < 0.05)."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Age and Developmental Stage — moderator: an instructional effect differs with it
• Social Awareness and Relationship Skills — outcome: instruction changes it

Related Claims¶

• Pretend play is positively related to social competence in children aged 3–8, with a small overall effect size — related
• Studies measuring the amount of pretend play yield lower correlations with social competence than studies measuring the quality of pretend play — related
• The pretend play–social competence relation does not differ significantly across types of social competence measures or between intervention and non-intervention studies — related