Abstract
Although a significant body of research has investigated the relationships among children’s emotion understanding (EU), theory of mind (ToM), and language abilities. As far as we know, no study to date has been conducted with a sizeable sample of both preschool and school-age children exploring the direct effect of EU on ToM when the role of language was evaluated as a potential exogenous factor in a single comprehensive model. Participants in the current study were 389 children (age range: 37–97 months, M = 60.79 months; SD = 12.66), to whom a False-Belief understanding battery, the Test of Emotion Comprehension, and the Peabody Test were administered. Children’s EU, ToM, and language ability (receptive vocabulary) were positively correlated. Furthermore, EU scores explained variability in ToM scores independently of participants’ age and gender. Finally, language was found to play a crucial role in both explaining variance in ToM scores and in mediating the relationship between EU and ToM. We discuss the theoretical and educational implications of these outcomes, particularly in relation to offering social and emotional learning programs through schools.
Highlights
The purpose of the current work was to investigate the relationships between emotion understanding (EU), theory of mind (ToM), and language abilities in a large sample of children with a broad age range.In recent decades, developmental psychologists have become increasingly interested in children’s acquisition of social cognition skills, such as EU, ToM, and language (Carpendale and Lewis, 2006; Hughes and Devine, 2015)
In order to further deepen the relationship among these variables, the present study explored the direct effect of EU on ToM when the role of language was evaluated as a potential exogenous variable in a single comprehensive model
Assumptions for multivariate analysis were checked and the data assessed for missing values and both uni- and multivariate outliers
Summary
The purpose of the current work was to investigate the relationships between emotion understanding (EU), theory of mind (ToM), and language abilities ( receptive vocabulary) in a large sample of children with a broad age range.In recent decades, developmental psychologists have become increasingly interested in children’s acquisition of social cognition skills, such as EU, ToM, and language (Carpendale and Lewis, 2006; Hughes and Devine, 2015). The contemporary study of children’s social cognition differs from earlier research informed by Piagetian theory, because it directly explores children’s ability to attribute epistemic – as opposed to perceptual – mental states, knowledge and beliefs (Baron-Cohen et al, 1985), and non-epistemic inner states, such as emotions and affect (Harris, 1989) This line of enquiry has shown, on one hand, that children’s ability to view the self and others as possessing internal states bears key implications for their social behavior and adjustment (Garner et al, 2008; Knafo et al, 2011; Imuta et al, 2016; Longobardi et al, 2016); and on the other, that social cognition is a complex construct comprising multiple, distinct yet interrelated, abilities (Cutting and Dunn, 1999; Harwood and Farrar, 2006). This work aims at deepening the association among these variables
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