Abstract
Emotion comprehension (EC) is known to be a key correlate and predictor of prosociality from early childhood. In the present study, we examined this relationship within the broad theoretical construct of social understanding which includes a number of socio-emotional skills, as well as cognitive and linguistic abilities. Theory of mind, especially false-belief understanding, has been found to be positively correlated with both EC and prosocial orientation. Similarly, language ability is known to play a key role in children’s socio-emotional development. The combined contribution of false-belief understanding and language to explaining the relationship between EC and prosociality has yet to be investigated. Thus, in the current study, we conducted an in-depth exploration of how preschoolers’ false-belief understanding and language ability each contribute to modeling the relationship between children’s comprehension of emotion and their disposition to act prosocially toward others, after controlling for age and gender. Participants were 101 4- to 6-year-old children (54% boys), who were administered measures of language ability, false-belief understanding, EC and prosocial orientation. Multiple mediation analysis of the data suggested that false-belief understanding and language ability jointly and fully mediated the effect of preschoolers’ EC on their prosocial orientation. Analysis of covariates revealed that gender exerted no statistically significant effect, while age had a trivial positive effect. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.
Highlights
In the research domain of children’s socio-emotional competence, a body of empirical evidence suggests that children’s understanding of their own and others’ emotions predicts their level of prosocial behavior toward peers and adults (Cassidy et al, 2003; Denham et al, 2003; Ensor and Hughes, 2005; Garner et al, 2008)
The present research investigated the potential mediating effects of constructs related to ToM in the relationship between Emotion comprehension (EC) and prosocial orientation
This is one of the few studies to have quantified and analyzed, using a multiple mediation model, the role of emotional, cognitive and linguistic factors in explaining children’s prosocial orientation. It investigated the association between EC and prosocial orientation in a sample of preschoolers with a view to addressing the question – still unresolved in the literature – of how this relationship is influenced by ToM and language, both key components of social understanding along with EC and prosocial disposition
Summary
In the research domain of children’s socio-emotional competence, a body of empirical evidence suggests that children’s understanding of their own and others’ emotions predicts their level of prosocial behavior toward peers and adults (Cassidy et al, 2003; Denham et al, 2003; Ensor and Hughes, 2005; Garner et al, 2008). We set out to advance our knowledge of this relationship with respect to the broader theoretical construct of social understanding, which encompasses a wide range of abilities helping children to be aware of their own and others’ inner. While the existing literature includes studies on the independent contributions of EC and ToM to explaining the development of prosociality (e.g., Walker, 2005; Ensor et al, 2011), there is a lack of data concerning the role of ToM (especially false-belief understanding) in modeling the relationship between EC and prosocial disposition. Given that within the broader theoretical construct of social understanding, language is another key variable that contributes to explaining children’s cognitive and socio-emotional development, (Carpendale and Lewis, 2006) we chose to include linguistic ability in our research design.
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