I think I speak for many of us when I say that imaginary friends were a big part of our childhoods. It gave us someone to talk to and argue with before we made “real” friends. But what were these friends really like? And why did we choose to make them?

A study conducted by Marjorie Taylor at the University of Oregon found that 37% of children take “imaginative play” further by age seven and create invisible friends. Boys tend to keep their friends as males while girls invent either male or female friends.

Taylor found that children who create these relationships with an object (such as a doll or stuffed animal) have more of a parental relationship with the object. Children whose relationships are with “invisible friends” have more friend-like connections and treat their friend as an equal. She and her colleagues also found that 1/3 of children have argued/been angry with their imaginary friends for many reasons from not coming when called to “putting yogurt in my hair.”

The Taylor group interviewed 86 children. 77% of these children called their friend “pretend” and 40% randomly said at some point in their interviews that they were talking about a pretend friend.

Another study found that these friends do not disappear with childhood. The conductors of this study looked at the diaries of adolescents combined with questionnaires and concluded that teens who were “socially competent and creative” were more likely to invent imaginary friends that could replace relationships with real people.

In the early 1960s, Jean Piaget published her theories on imaginary friends saying that imaginary friends, “reflect immature thinking and should vanish by the time a child starts school.” Dr. Spock also reprimanded imaginary friends, citing them to be a trigger for social problems and a way to deal with loneliness, stress, or conflict.

These ideas have since been dismissed. Researchers such as Taylor have found that imaginary friends help a child distinguish between reality and fantasy. A study from La Trobe University in Melbourne discovered that three to six year olds that created imaginary friends ended up being more creative and socially advanced. It found that kids who had their own playmates were able to practice using both sides of conversation.

The Taylor study – conducted through observations and interviews – was an effective way to get the answers straight from the children themselves. By asking questions about their imaginary friends, Taylor was able to squash any of the bad raps imaginary friends had originally held. This eliminated concerns parents had about their children’s social development and allowed more imaginative play for the children.