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Gender differences in dream socialisation in children and adolescents

Michael Schredl, Angela Buscher, Cornelia Haaß, Melanie Scheuermann, Katharina Uhrig

International Journal of Adolescence and Youth February 27, 2013 DOI: 10.1080/02673843.2013.767211 (opens in new tab)

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Cross-sectional study Longitudinal Peer reviewed
Sample size 170
Population Children and adolescents aged 10-15 years
Keywords Dream Developmental psychology Affect linguistics Socialization Recall Cognitive psychology
Citations 16
Key findings Gender-specific effects were found in the frequency of communicating about dreams, especially in same-sex friendships, and this correlated with dream recall frequencies, supporting the hypothesis that dream socialisation may contribute to gender differences in dream recall.

Abstract

Dream socialisation encompasses factors that might affect children's attitudes towards dreams or their dream recall frequencies directly; for example, by being asked about dreams by other persons or the sharing of dreams with others. The present study in 170 children/adolescents (age range 10–15 years) was designed to study whether dream socialisation might help to explain the well-documented gender difference regarding dream recall frequencies and related variables in adolescence and adulthood. Gender-specific effects regarding the frequency of communicating about dreams, especially for same-sex friendships, were found, and the correlation supports the hypothesis that these variables might be of importance to dreaming in later life. In order to corroborate the results of this first quantitative study of dream socialisation in children/adolescents, longitudinal studies as well as experimental studies manipulating dream socialisation variables are necessary.