Research Trends in Young Children’s Theory of Mind using Keyword Network Analysis

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the trends in research and find implications for future research to understand the characteristics of young children’s theory of mind from 1997 to 2021. Out of the research papers published in journals in the field of early childhood education, 175 articles that fit the purpose of this study were analyzed using network analysis methods. The summary of the analysis results was as follows: First, in the study of young children’s theory of mind, “theory of mind”, “false belief”, “pretend play”, “emotion”, “executive function”, “social ability”, “story”, “young children”, “peer competence”, and “picturebook” showed high frequency. Second, it can be seen that the network structure for each period gradually changes from the first to the third periods. This demonstrated that while the research of theory of mind was somewhat slow but steadily active, the keywords identified in the early childhood theory of mind study evolved into a broad and rich array. Based on the results of this study, this study suggests diversification of the theory of mind research to perspectives of social cognition development of young children.