Measuring patterns of fantasy behaviors in children

Abstract

The Children's Fantasy Inventory was developed and refined on a large sample of first- and third-grade children (N = 748). Within the limits of a 45-item instrument, appropriate to the children's attention span, a wide range of fantasy activity was tapped. The nine empirically derived, nonorthogonal scales had good internal consistency, as measured by coefficient alpha, and good test-retest reliabilities. The scales on the Children's fantasy Inventory were found to be related to other previously used measures of fantasy in children and to previously derived adult scales. Differences in styles of fantasy were found between boys and girls and between first and third graders, but there were no significant differences in overall frequency of fantasy. Retesting after a year's lag indicated that fantasy behaviors have significant stability over time.