Research On Parasocial Relationship Characteristics Between 5-6 Years Old Children And Cartoon Characters

Parasocial relationship is a new kind of one-sided social relationships, which is the relation between real individual and the virtual character in the media. With the continuous development of the media, Parasocial relationship is also beginning to affect the life and development of preschool children. Cartoon is popular in children’s life, where the cartoon character has great attraction for children, more like a children’s peer. The cartoon character has parasocial relationships with children, and even impact on the social behavior of children in the real life. This research takes cartoon character image as the research material, peer relations familiar with children as reference, to discuss the parasocial relationships and its characteristics between cartoon character and children. Furthermore, the study has a practical significance that provides enlightenment for the research on children’s parasocial relationships. At the same time, this research also provide a practical value on children’s cartoon choice for educators and parents put forward the proposal on, the guidance of education psychology for the majority of children’s media producer.The research randomly selected two kindergartens in Shanghai and interviewed 113 5-6 years old children in a semi-structured interview method, combining with The Audience-personal Interaction Scale and The PSI-process Scale and changed into the interview outline, in order to investigate the parasocial relationships between 5-6 years old children and their favorite cartoon character and their peer relations. The results show that: 1. Preschool children in senior class choose more male cartoon character than female role in parasocial relationships. Boys are more likely to choose same-sex cartoon character as their favorite, and boys choose their favorites because of ability while girls because appearance. 2. Preschool children in senior class acknowledge the cartoon character is real, and wants to communicate with them in real. Girls have higher willingness in speaking to the characters than boys. 3. Preschool children in senior class have great wishful identification. They will imitate their favorite cartoon characters and regard them as their idols.4. Girl shows a stronger tendency of group identification in parasocial relationships. Girls and their friends are more likely to love the same cartoon characters, and they will play together with cartoon role-playing games.5. Preschool children in senior class produce higher positive emotion than negative emotion.6. The parasocial relationships and peer relations of 5-6 years old children is similar in following sections:Children’s evalutoions on cartoon characters and peers are mainly personality factors and appearance. Preschool children in senior class whose interaction with cartoon characters is similar to the communication between he and his friends will think cartoon character as their good friend and willing to play with them.7. The parasocial relationships and peer relations of 5-6 years old children is different in following sections:Children’s choice of partner tend to same-sex children and will select peers because of the relationship effect. Relative to the favorite cartoon character, preschool children in senior class produce more negative evaluation and emotions to peers. Preschool children in senior class are more likely to imitate cartoon characters than peers. They identify more with cartoon character behavior and perform more imitation behavior.