War Toy Play and Aggression in Dutch Kindergarten Children

The play behavior of 54 four to seven-year-old Dutch children in the presence of a standard set of war toys and neutral toys was related to five groups of variables, i.e., parental attitude, possession of war toys at home, the habitual aggressiveness of the child in daily life, the characteristics of the toys themselves, and the play situation. Real object- or person-oriented aggression was rare and was not related to play with the war toys. Suppression of aggression by the experimental situation seemed unlikely. During play, the levels of involvement and fantasy were generally high. Regularly, playful fighting was observed, differentiated as Make-Believe-Aggression and Rough-and-Tumble. These two Play ‘Aggression’ factors, and Real Aggression, could be predicted from other variables, principally from gender, the influence of session partners, play involvement, type of war toy used and parental attitude.