Relations between theory of mind, mental state language and social adjustment in primary school children. Issue 4 (3rd July 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Longobardi, Emiddia; Spataro, Pietro; Rossi-Arnaud, Clelia
• Is Part Of: European journal of developmental psychology. Volume 13:Issue 4(2016)
• Page Start: 424
• Page End: 438
• Publication Date: 2016-07-03
• Subjects: Theory of Mind -- false belief understanding -- mental state language -- social Adjustment -- primary school children; Developmental psychology -- Periodicals; Developmental psychology -- Europe -- Periodicals; 155
• DOI: 10.1080/17405629.2015.1093930
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1740-5629

Abstract

Abstract: The present study investigated the concurrent relations between theory of mind (ToM), mental state language (MSL) and social adjustment (assessed in terms of emotional instability, prosocial behaviour and aggressiveness) in a sample of 150 children between 8 and 11 years of age. The results showed no correlation between the performance on false belief tasks and the frequency of MSL in a narrative task. False belief understanding was unrelated with all measures of social adjustment, whereas the children's use of MSL was negatively correlated with emotional instability and aggressiveness, above and beyond the influence of receptive language ability. These findings suggest that having a ToM ability is different from spontaneously using it during non-interactive narrative tasks, and that the two ToM measures are differently related to social competence in primary school children.