Children’s ability to engage in pretend play is important for healthy development. However, relative to cognitive play features, only a handful of studies have examined the influence of affect expression in pretend play on child development. This study evaluated prospective relations of 250 preschoolers’ (M_age = 49.05 months, SD = 2.95; 50% female; 46% Latinx) expressions of prosocial and aggressive affect themes in solitary pretend play with their prosocial and aggressive behaviors in laboratory and school settings two years later. Prosocial and aggressive affect themes in preschoolers’ pretend play evidenced specific and positive relations with prosocial and aggressive behaviors in the laboratory two years later, but not with teacher‐reported behaviors in school. Multigroup analyses indicated these relations did not vary as a function of child gender, ethnicity‐race, or poverty status. This study illustrates the complexity and behavioral significance of children’s affect expression in pretend play. Implications for understanding children’s play and social development include the need to consider affective (in addition to cognitive) play features, including specific affect themes in pretend play, as a potential window into children’s behavioral strengths and vulnerabilities.

中文翻译：

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学龄前儿童亲社会和侵略性影响主题的预期关系假装玩耍中跨上下文的亲社会和侵略行为

儿童进行假装游戏的能力对于健康发展至关重要。但是，相对于认知游戏功能，只有少数研究检查了假装游戏中情感表达对儿童发育的影响。这项研究评估了250名学龄前儿童的前瞻性关系（M_年龄 = 49.05个月，SD = 2.95; 50％女性；两年后，在社交和攻击行为中，有46％的亲社会和攻击性影响主题在实验室和学校环境中假装表现出亲社会和攻击性行为。学龄前儿童假装游戏中的亲社会和侵略性影响主题证明，两年后与实验室中的亲社会和侵略性行为具有特定和积极的关系，但与学校报告的行为无关。多组分析表明，这些关系没有随儿童性别，种族或贫困状况的变化而变化。这项研究说明了假装游戏中儿童情感表达的复杂性和行为意义。了解儿童游戏和社会发展的含义包括需要考虑情感（除了认知）游戏功能，