title: "I got some swords and you're dead!": violent fantasy, antisocial behavior, friendship, and moral sensibility in young children.
abstract: Relations between an early interest in violent fantasy and children's social understanding, antisocial and emotional behavior, and interactions with friends were investigated in 40 "hard-to-manage" preschoolers and 40 control children matched for gender, age, and school and ethnic background. Children were filmed alone in a room with a friend, and tested on a battery of cognitive tests, including false-belief, executive function, and emotion understanding tasks. Teachers reported on their friendship quality. At age 6 years, the children's understanding of the emotional consequences of antisocial and prosocial actions was studied. The hard-to-manage group showed higher rates of violent fantasy; across both groups combined, violent fantasy was related to poor executive control and language ability, frequent antisocial behavior, displays of anger and refusal to help a friend, poor communication and coordination of play, more conflict with a friend, and less empathic moral sensibility 2 years later. The usefulness of a focus on the content of children's pretend play-in particular, violent fantasy-as a window on children's preoccupations is considered.
authors.affiliation: Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre,  King's College London, UK. judy.dunn@iop.kcl.ac.uk
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dunn
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hughes
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D019958:Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D010379:Peer Group; D010988:Play and Playthings / Q000523:psychology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D002666:Psychology, Child; D006113:United Kingdom; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology*