The pretend play–social competence relation does not differ significantly across types of social competence measures or between intervention and non-intervention studies¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · quant-synthesisr2·q3
Currency · newest study 2024 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q3 i? No significant differences were found between the types of social competence measures (empathy, social encoding, social behavior, sociometric status, theory of mind, emotion regulation), and intervention versus non-intervention design did not affect the relation. → 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 · i? · quant-synthesis · r2
Meta-regression moderator tests in Table 1 across kstudies = 34, kES = 188, with emotion regulation and non-intervention as reference conditions. All moderator contrasts were non-significant (e.g., social behavior z = −0.442, p = .659; intervention z = −0.188, p = .851); no effect sizes were printed for these contrasts.
"There were no significant differences between the types of social competence measures (i.e., empathy social encoding, social behavior, sociometric status, theory of mind, and emotion regulation). Also, the design of the studies (i.e., intervention studies versus non-intervention studies) did not affect the relation between pretend play and social competence."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Studies measuring solitary pretend play amount yield lower correlations with social competence than studies measuring social pretend play amount — related
- Studies measuring the amount of pretend play yield lower correlations with social competence than studies measuring the quality of pretend play — related
- Children's age negatively moderates the pretend play–social competence relation, which weakens as children get older — related
- Pretend play is positively related to social competence in children aged 3–8, with a small overall effect size — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
no-difference-by-competence-measure-or-design |
title |
The pretend play–social competence relation does not differ significantly across types of social competence measures or between intervention and non-intervention studies |
description |
The pretend play–social competence relation does not differ significantly across types of social competence measures or between intervention and non-intervention studies |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2024 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-22 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — smits-van-der-nat-2024 |
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