All the witches, Spider-Mans and Barbies will be hitting the streets and trunk-or-treats soon. Dressing up is the fun part of Halloween, but it can also be fundamental in child development.
“Costumes allow imagination, creativity and becoming someone else,” said Marissa Diener, a professor of family and consumer studies at The University of Utah. “That gives children a real sense of power.”
Diener felt that as a child herself growing up in the Midwest. When she was 8 years old, she bought some old wooden skis at a garage sale ahead of Halloween. And that was despite there being only a single sledding hill in town, which was really a garbage pile covered in grass.
“Skiing for me was really exotic and exciting, and something that was very aspirational for me, not real,” she said.
Even though they were big and heavy, Diener lugged those skis around trick-or-treating with poles dangling from her wrists.
“There was no chance I was becoming a skier in central Illinois,” she said. “But it represented who I could become or something that I wasn't. It was an opportunity to be something fantastic.”
That’s what kids get to do every Halloween, Deiner said. Plus, wearing a costume on the holiday also strengthens a child’s relationship with their community.
“Costumes allow a point of connection. It’s a shared experience — we’re all dressing up,” Diener said. “The costume is the key element. It's a conversation point, and it's how you get into the event. If you're not dressed up, you might not get candy.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Ciara Hulet: I remember a Halloween when I was Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. I felt like I could be someone with magical abilities. What does that do for a child when they can feel those things?
Marissa Diener: Kids are a lot of times in places where they don't have a lot of power, but when you wear a costume, when you take on that other ability, you're in control. You're determining what you do as Hermione or what you do as the skier. So that's a really exciting place for children to be.
CH: How does it affect children to step into a character’s shoes?
MD: Through wearing costumes and taking other people's perspectives, they're really developing an idea that people are different from them. And then they're also learning to take on other people's perspectives. That's really important because that's the basis for empathy.
CH: How does trick-or-treating play into that?
MD: You might feel uncomfortable walking up to someone's house and ringing the doorbell, but in a costume, you have the power, and you know that they're going to give you something. It also helps you overcome fear. A lot of people really decorate their house in a scary manner — we have witches and skeletons and monsters. And you're really learning some emotion regulation that you can manage those fears when you're trick-or-treating.
CH: So in costume, you can be anonymous — maybe be braver or bolder and confront scary ideas or scary strangers. Does this mean you can work up the courage to ask for candy at the door in a costume but maybe couldn't out of costume?
MD: Yes, that's exactly right. When my nephew was about 4 years old, he was pretty shy. But he had a dragon costume that he loved, and he wore it all the time. When he was wearing that costume, he was a dragon. And the dragon had power and he wasn't scared of anyone.
CH: What's in it for adults who dress up?
MD: It allows adults also to escape from the cares of their daily life and to have imagination. If you look at adults' costumes, they are so creative. And they're also taking on a different identity. They can do something more daring or something that they're really not in their everyday life.
