Social pretend play in Korean- and Anglo-American preschoolers

Ninety-two preschoolers (46 Anglo- and 46 Korean-American) were observed during free play activities and videotaped in an experimental toy play setting. Cultural differences were examined in the frequency of social pretend play, communicative strategies, and pretend play themes. Anglo-American children engaged in more pretend play during free play activities than Korean-American children. In the experimental setting, there were no cultural differences in the frequency of pretend play; however, there were significant differences in children's communicative strategies and in their play themes. Korean-American children's play included everyday activity and family role themes, whereas Anglo-American children enacted danger in the environment and fantastic themes. Anglo-American children described their own actions, rejected their partners' suggestions, and used directives, whereas Korean-American children described their partners' actions and used tag questions, semantic ties, statements of agreement, and polite requests. The findings suggest that play is a common activity for most children. However, the thematic content and the communicative strategies used to structure and maintain pretend play are influenced by culture.