491 research outputs found
Individual differences in theory of mind in middle childhood and adolescence
No full textFor more than two decades, researchers have documented striking individual differences in children’s understanding of others’ minds. The extension of research on theory of mind into middle childhood and adolescence provides a new opportunity to consider the nature, measurement, and consequences of individual differences in theory of mind. This chapter evaluates the claim that there are genuine (i.e., stable differences between children) and meaningful (i.e., with consequences for children’s social lives) individual differences in theory of mind in early and middle childhood. The chapter draws on three sources of evidence: (1) studies adopting theory of mind task batteries to investigate individual differences in children’s mindreading; (2) a new meta-analysis of 76 longitudinal studies of the rank-order stability of individual differences in theory of mind in early and middle childhood; and (3) longitudinal data examining the association between individual differences in theory of mind and social competence in middle childhood. The chapter builds on contemporary measurement theory to identify promising avenues for future research on the nature of individual differences in theory of mind
Promoting theory of mind in school-aged children:Direct and transfer effects
No full textDespite theory of mind (ToM) has a role in social and cognitive development in school aged children, very few studies have proposed interventions to promote ToM in middle childhood. To fill this gap, we developed a novel ToM training program for 9- to 10-year-old children. Results showed that, after the intervention, children in the ToM group improved in ToM task performance significantly more than children in the control condition. The positive effect of the ToM intervention generalized to a new film-based ToM task and was not determined by pre-existing individual differences in ToM, cognitive, and executive skills between groups.</p
Children in ethnically diverse classrooms and those with cross-ethnic friendships excel at understanding others' minds
No full textThis study examined the link between classroom ethnic diversity, cross‐ethnic friendships, and children's theory of mind. In total, 730 children in the United Kingdom (54.7% girls, 51.5% White) aged 8 to 13 years completed measures of theory of mind in 2019/2020. Controlling for verbal ability, executive function, peer social preference, and teacher‐reported demographic characteristics, greater classroom ethnic diversity provided opportunities for cross‐ethnic friendships, and children with cross‐ethnic friendships performed better than peers without cross‐ethnic friendships on theory of mind. These results extend accounts of intergroup contact by using direct assessments of children's theory of mind and advance social accounts of theory of mind by demonstrating how experiences outside the family are linked with theory of mind
Lost in Translation? Comparing British, Japanese, and Italian Children’s Theory-of-Mind Performance
No full textFindings from cross-cultural theory-of-mind studies highlight potential measurement effects and both general (e.g., East-West) and specific (e.g., pedagogical experiences) cultural contrasts. We compared theory-of-mind scores for children from UK and Italy (two Western countries that differ in age of school entry) and Japan (a Far-Eastern country in which children, like their Italian counterparts, start school later than British children). Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to data from 268 age-gender- and verbal ability-matched 5- to 6-year olds. Key findings were that (i) all 8 indicators loaded onto a single latent factor; and (ii) this latent factor explained significant variance in each group, with just one indicator showing differential item functioning. Supporting the importance of pedagogical experiences, British children outperformed both their Italian and Japanese counterparts
Do executive function and theory of mind underpin child positivity and autonomy during parent-child interactions?
No full textAmong the multiple determinants of children’s social development are two socio-cognitive factors, theory of mind (ToM) and executive functions (EF). ToM is defined as the ability to infer others’ beliefs, desires, and intentions (Flavell and Miller, 1994; Wellman & Liu, 2014) and EF refers to the processes that underpin goal-directed behaviour and adaptive responses to novel or ambiguous situations (Diamond, 2013; Zelazo, 2015). These show independent predictive associations with measures of social competence in both typically developing children (e.g., Devine & Hughes, 2014; Hughes et al., 2000; Hughes & Ensor, 2006) and neurodiverse groups (e.g., Charman et al., 2001; Joseph & Tager-Flusberg, 2004). Although links between ToM and EF are well-established (Devine & Hughes, 2014), existing work on the independence and interplay between ToM and EF in relation to children’s social outcomes has been almost exclusively restricted to peer relations. This focus is understandable, given the substantial amounts of time children spend with peers at school (Rubin et al., 2006). Moreover, for practical reasons of time and availability, observational studies of child-caregiver interactions rarely extend beyond the preschool years. Drawing on recent work, this study examines individual differences in children’s EF and ToM in relation to two aspects of their social behaviours when engaging with their parents in an online version of the Etch-A-Sketch task (Oliver and Pike, 2019): positivity and autonomy
Measuring theory of mind across middle childhood: Reliability and validity of the Silent Films and Strange Stories tasks.
No full textRecent years have seen a growth of research on the development of children's ability to reason about others' mental states (or "theory of mind") beyond the narrow confines of the preschool period. The overall aim of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of a task battery composed of items from Happé's Strange Stories task and Devine and Hughes' Silent Film task. A sample of 460 ethnically and socially diverse children (211 boys) between 7 and 13years of age completed the task battery at two time points separated by 1month. The Strange Stories and Silent Film tasks were strongly correlated even when verbal ability and narrative comprehension were taken into account, and all items loaded onto a single theory-of-mind latent factor. The theory-of-mind latent factor provided reliable estimates of performance across a wide range of theory-of-mind ability and showed no evidence of differential item functioning across gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. The theory-of-mind latent factor also exhibited strong 1-month test-retest reliability, and this stability did not vary as a function of child characteristics. Taken together, these findings provide evidence for the validity and reliability of the Strange Stories and Silent Film task battery as a measure of individual differences in theory of mind suitable for use across middle childhood. We consider the methodological and conceptual implications of these findings for research on theory of mind beyond the preschool years
Psychological predictors in context: an empirical study of interactions between determinants of car use intentions
No full textThis paper is from the PhD work of Wall, the lead author, supervised by Devine-Wright and Mill.
The work described here and in Output 1, and other parts of the thesis from which they were derived, was extensively cited in the DfT (2006) report “An Evidence Base Review of Public Attitudes to Climate Change and Transport Behaviour”
Theory of mind in adolescents with autism
No full textEvidence for differences in theory of mind between persons with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) has arguably contributed to the enormous interest in studying theory of mind since the mid-1980s. Early accounts of ASD suggested that the impairments in social communication and interaction observed in those with ASD could be attributed to a general theory of mind deficit. This chapter attempts to integrate a selection of contemporary research on theory of mind in ASD – with a particular emphasis on middle childhood and adolescence. Over the years, our research team has done several studies on autism and theory of mind in this age group, and we will put some of this work in perspective here. We examine the origins and consequences of theory of mind difficulties among children and adolescents with ASD, critically evaluate existing theoretical accounts of theory of mind deficits in ASD, and highlight important unanswered questions for future research
Post-secondary planning paradoxes: how regular kids prepare for the future in the college-for-all era
No full textThis dissertation examines the interactional processes that lead to stratified post-secondary planning and outcomes among high school students. In contrast to most sociological research on education, I study “regular” students, neither the overachievers nor those at risk of dropping out. I address how the mundane details of students’ daily lives are patterned to produce and reproduce systems of privilege. In the first of two waves of research, I interviewed 28 New Jersey counselors. In the second wave, I spent two years shadowing students through 11th and 12th grades at one racially and socioeconomically diverse high school in the suburban fringe of New York City. Multiple ethnographic methods included focus groups, school-day shadowing and repeated interviews of 17 focal students, and interviews with teachers, parents, counselors, and administrators. I argue that students’ lives are structured by a series of paradoxes, beginning with the college-for-all paradox: we expect all students to go to college, and yet fewer than half do. I explore a number of sub-paradoxes that structure student experience in high school. First, some counselors employ a pedagogical role; they scaffold post-secondary planning to foster a “dependent independence” that makes it (incorrectly) appear that students are doing it on their own. Second, New Jersey High School (NJHS) sends a series of complex mixed messages about college in response to a student body with diverse post-secondary outcomes. Mixed messages appear in formal and informal interactions and in the school’s institutional structures. NJHS tells students that college is for everyone, but it’s actually not for all of them. Third, students must navigate through these vague messages to figure out where they fit vis-à-vis their classmates and how that might inform their post-secondary plans. They must do this in a cultural space in which they are just learning which comparisons are acceptable and which must be left implicit. These strategies allow students to adjust their expectations while absolving teachers and counselors from giving advice that is difficult to hear. This leaves students with often mistaken impressions of solid college plans, and they thereby come to understand not going to college as a personal failure.Ph. D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Audrey Elizabeth Devine Elle
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