Teachers' Theory‐of‐mind Coaching and Children's Executive Function Predict the Training Effect of Sociodramatic Play on Children's Theory of Mind

Theory of mind (ToM), the ability to interpret one's own and others' mental states, is essential for social interaction; thus, it is important to promote the early development of ToM. The current study investigated (1) whether sociodramatic play (SDP) promotes the development of ToM in kindergarten children; (2) whether teachers' ToM coaching, as well as children's individual differences in language and executive function (EF), may influence how children benefit from SDP; and (3) whether SDP improves children's development in language and EF. Seventy‐one kindergarteners (M age = 60.2 months, SD = 5.7) divided into 12 groups were randomly assigned to three conditions: free play, SDP, or SDP + ToM coaching. Each condition included four weekly sessions, 45 min per session. Before and after the training, children's ToM, language and EF were measured. The results showed that after children's individual differences in ToM were considered, (1) SDP positively predicted children's post‐test ToM; (2) teachers' ToM‐related guidance during SDP and children's pretest EF positively predicted the training effect of SDP on children's ToM; (3) teachers' ToM‐related guidance during SDP, but not SDP alone, predicted children's post‐test language; and (4) neither SDP nor teachers' ToM‐related guidance during SDP predicted children's post‐test EF.     

The Role of Physical Context,Verbal Skills,Non‐parental Care,Social Support,and Type of Parental Discipline in the Development of ToM Capacity in Five‐Year‐Old Children

The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of family context on the performance of 5‐year‐old children (N = 70) in theory of mind (ToM) tasks. The children's performances were assessed during individual sessions held at school. Children's verbal skills were assessed using the Peabody picture vocabulary test (PPVT). Interviews were also conducted with parents in the family home in order to gather sociodemographic data and to assess diverse variables of the family context. In addition to confirming the important role played by children's verbal skills in ToM, the results also supported a potential influence of family context in ToM development through variables, such as quality of non‐parental care or level of social contact and support. The educational implications of these results are discussed in relation to family intervention.     

Executive function and theory of mind as predictors of aggressive and prosocial behavior and peer acceptance in early childhood

Executive function (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) are related to children's social interactions, such as aggression and prosocial behavior, as well as their peer acceptance. However, limited research has examined different forms of aggression and the moderating role of gender. This study investigated links between EF, ToM, physical and relational aggression, prosocial behavior and peer acceptance and explored whether these relations are gender specific. Children (N = 106) between 46‐ and 80‐months‐old completed tasks assessing cool and hot EF and ToM. Teaching staff rated children's aggression, prosocial behavior, and peer acceptance. EF and ToM predicted physical, but not relational, aggression. Poor inhibition and delay of gratification were uniquely associated with greater physical aggression. EF and ToM did not predict prosocial behavior or peer acceptance. Added to this, gender did not moderate the relation between either EF or ToM and social outcomes. The correlates of aggression may therefore differ across forms of aggression but not between genders in early childhood.     

Effects of a Punitive Environment on Children's Executive Functioning: A Natural Experiment

Few studies have examined the influence of environmental factors on children's executive functioning (EF) performance. The present study examined the effects of a punitive vs. non‐punitive school environment on West African children's EF skills. Tasks included a ‘cool’ (relatively non‐affective) and ‘hot’ (relatively affective/motivational) version of three EF tasks: delay of gratification; gift delay; and dimensional change card sort. Children had more difficulties with the hot versions of the tasks than the cool versions, and older children outperformed younger children. After controlling for verbal ability (Peabody picture vocabulary test‐third edition), a consistent pattern of interaction between school and grade level emerged. Overall, kindergarten children in the punitive school performed no differently than their counterparts in the non‐punitive school. However, in grade 1, children in the punitive school performed significantly worse than their counterparts in the non‐punitive school. These results point to the need to consider interactions among discipline style, age, and internalization processes of self‐regulation to better understand environmental influences on EF development.     

Links between attachment and theory of mind in childhood: Meta‐analytic review

Theoretical models suggest a relation between children's attachment and their theory of mind (ToM), but existing empirical studies are inconclusive with respect to the existence and magnitude of this association. We present the first meta‐analytic review of available studies on the attachment‐ToM association during childhood. Fifteen research on attachment‐ToM links among typically developed children aged 2 to 6 were reviewed and 12 studies that report correlations between attachment and ToM (N = 629) were included in a quantitative meta‐analysis. Meta‐analytic results showed that the higher attachment security, the better ToM skills; the combined effect size for this association was moderate, r = .30. These findings are discussed in‐depth and future research directions are proposed.     

Perspective‐taking and gift‐giving in Chinese preschool children

This study explored Chinese preschool children's perspective‐taking via a gift‐giving paradigm. Unlike findings with North American children (Atance et al. in, Dev Psychol 46:1505–1513, 2010), the results from two experiments (N_{Exp. 1} = 329; N_{Exp. 2} = 112) showed that allowing Chinese children to first choose a desired object for themselves did not enhance their subsequent perspective‐taking performance in gift selection or gift justifications. This was true regardless of gift type (consumable or recreational items) or of recipient (mom, teacher, experimenter, or friend). In addition, children's perspective‐taking did not correlate with their performances in behavioral inhibition and delay of gratification tasks. These results suggest the possibility that the prior desire fulfillment effect varies with children's socio‐cultural experiences. Finally, Chinese children showed better perspective‐taking in choosing consumable gifts (e.g., drinks, snacks) than recreational gifts (e.g., toys, magazines), although this effect was not found for gift selection in Experiment 2. One interpretation of these results is that children's capacity for prosocial perspective‐taking is influenced by socio‐cultural experiences and social knowledge about individuals' preferences for different kinds of objects.     

Maternal and Paternal Mental‐state Talk and Executive Function in Preschool Children

The present study examined the relationship between parents’ mental‐state talk and preschoolers’ executive function. Seventy‐two children participated in the present study, as well as their mothers and fathers. When children were enrolled in the second preschool year, mothers’ and fathers’ use of mental‐state references were assessed during a shared picture‐book reading task with the child. Later, four months before admission to the first grade, preschoolers’ executive function was measured. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that maternal, but not paternal, mental‐state talk was a significant predictor of children's executive function composite, even after accounting for child gender, age, verbal ability, and parental education. When looking at each of the EF components, maternal mental‐state talk proved to be a predictor of set‐shifting whereas no significant relations emerged with inhibitory control or working memory. These findings add to prior research on parenting quality and executive function in preschoolers.     

Children’s narrative story stem responses: Contributions of executive functioning and language proficiency to relationship representations

Story stem narrative tasks provide insight into young children's inner experiences. Little research has investigated how developmental capacities impact narrative content and process. This study evaluates the influence of executive functioning (EF) and language ability on children's narratives. Data were gathered from 210 low‐income children. EF and language ability were assessed at age 4 and EF was assessed at age 6 via direct examination, cognitive‐motor tasks, and examiner ratings. Children's responses to eight story stems were gathered at age 6; three latent narrative variables were constructed (Prosocial, Aggressive/Conflict, and Avoidance/Danger), and Narrative Coherence was rated. Results of longitudinal path analyses in structural equation modeling demonstrated age 4 EF significantly predicted all narrative outcomes. Language ability independently predicted Prosocial and Narrative Coherence, and had an influence on Aggression/Conflict when modeled with EF. Age 6 EF mediated the relationship between age 4 EF and narrative outcomes. Findings provide insight into developmental abilities that influence on children's narrative responses to challenging interpersonal scenarios. Future research should study parent–child relations, EF, and language abilities simultaneously.     

Attributing emotions to false beliefs: Development across discrete emotions

Emotion false belief (EFB) is the ability to correctly predict people's emotions given that they hold a false belief (FB). Accumulating evidence suggests that EFB understanding develops after FB understanding; however, the literature presents inconsistencies in this lag. The present study investigated the development of EFB in 85 four‐ and six‐year‐olds, and systematically compared this development to FB understanding across different emotions. Controlling for verbal ability and task demands, 6‐year‐olds scored significantly better on EFB tasks than 4‐year‐olds, and 6‐year‐olds' performance was better than chance. Performance did not vary by emotion. The data supported a developmental precedence of FB to EFB. Results suggest that children's acquisition of EFB is not due solely to verbal ability, FB understanding, or discrete emotion understanding; attributing emotions to beliefs represents a conceptual change in emotion understanding that occurs holistically. These conclusions are discussed in terms of socioemotional development.     

Bidirectional Associations Between Parental Responsiveness and Executive Function During Early Childhood

In this study, we examined bidirectional associations between parental responsiveness and executive function (EF) processes in socioeconomically disadvantaged preschoolers. Participants were 534 3‐ to 5‐year‐old children (71 percent Hispanic/Latino; 28 percent African American; 1 percent European American) attending Head Start programs. At Time 1 (T1) and 6.5 months later at Time 2 (T2), parents and children participated in a videotaped free play session and children completed delay inhibition (gift delay‐wrap, gift delay‐bow) and conflict EF (bear/dragon, dimensional change card sort) tasks. Parental warm acceptance, contingent responsiveness, and verbal scaffolding were coded from the free play videos and aggregated to create a parental responsiveness latent variable. A cross‐lagged panel structural equation model indicated that higher T1 parental responsiveness significantly predicted more positive gain in delay inhibition and conflict EF from T1 to T2. Higher T1 delay inhibition, but not T1 conflict EF, significantly predicted more positive change in parental responsiveness from T1 to T2. These associations were not explained by several possible confounding variables, including children's age, gender, race/ethnicity, and verbal ability. Findings suggest that parental responsiveness may support EF development in disadvantaged children, with reciprocal effects of delay inhibition on parental responsiveness.     

Peer Victimization,Self‐esteem,and Ego Resilience Types in Adolescents: A Prospective Analysis of Person‐context Interactions

This study examined bidirectional, longitudinal associations between peer victimisation and self‐esteem in adolescents, and tested for moderator effects of undercontrolling, overcontrolling, and ego‐resilient personality types in these associations. Data were used from 774 adolescents ages 11–16 years who participated in a three‐wave (i.e., 2005, 2006, and 2007) longitudinal study. Structural equation modelling analyses in Mplus demonstrated that, controlling for earlier levels of self‐esteem, self‐reported peer victimization was associated with lower self‐esteem across one‐year time intervals. Vice versa, however, low self‐esteem was not predictive of subsequent self‐reported victimization. Evidence was also found for a moderator effect of personality type on the longitudinal associations between self‐esteem and victimization. Only in the subgroup of overcontrolling adolescents was lower self‐esteem related to subsequently higher levels of peer victimization; their undercontrolling and ego‐resilient peers were unaffected.     

Contingencies of Self‐worth in Early Adolescence: The Antecedent Role of Perceived Parenting

Contingent self‐esteem (i.e., the degree to which one's self‐esteem is dependent on meeting particular conditions) has been shown to predict a wide range of psychosocial and academic problems. This study extends previous research on contingent self‐esteem by examining the predictive role of perceived parenting dimensions in a sample of early adolescents (N = 240; age range 11–15 years). Additionally, the effect of perceived parenting on contingent self‐esteem is compared with its effect on global self‐esteem. Our main findings showed that both responsiveness and psychological control were unique predictors of global self‐esteem whereas only psychological control uniquely predicted contingent self‐esteem. Although the effect of responsiveness on global self‐esteem was increased when combined with high levels of behavioral control, this effect did not depend on the level of psychological control. The effect of psychological control on contingent self‐esteem, however, generally increased when combined with high levels of responsiveness.     

Effects of consistency between self and in‐group on children's views of self,groups, and abilities

Children's developing views of self and in‐groups inevitably conflict at points during childhood (e.g., a girl who thinks of herself as strong encounters the gender stereotype that girls are weak). How are self and group views reconciled in such cases? To test hypotheses based on Greenwald et al.'s model of self, group, and attribute relations, children (N = 107; ages 7–12; M = 9 years, 6 months) were assigned to novel social groups, denoted by red and blue t‐shirts, in their classrooms. Across 3 weeks, children completed three novel tasks and received false feedback on personal and group task performance, producing a between‐subjects experimental design in which children received either consistent or inconsistent self and group feedback. Immediately after receiving feedback, children answered questions about the particular task. Finally, upon completion of all three manipulations, children completed measures of views of the self and novel groups. As predicted, children's views of the tasks, self, and groups were influenced by feedback. Unexpectedly, children viewed themselves as more similar to the in‐group than out‐group irrespective of feedback consistency. Furthermore, children developed in‐group biased attitudes, but these biases were largely unrelated to feedback.     

Paternal and Maternal Mind‐mindedness and Preschoolers' Theory of Mind: The Mediating Role of Interactional Attunement

The present investigation explored (1) fathers' contributions to children's theory of mind (ToM) development, (2) the similarity between maternal and paternal mind‐mindedness (MM) in relation to children's ToM, and (3) the relative predictive strength of two concurrently administered measures of MM (an online and an interview assessment) in relation to children's ToM. Thirty‐nine fathers, mothers, and their four‐year‐olds participated. Paternal MM was positively correlated with children's ToM performance. In addition, the two groups of parents performed similarly on both measures of MM. The findings also suggest that mothers and fathers who scored higher on the MM interview were more attuned to their children's mental processes during the online interaction measure of MM. The online measure of MM was found to mediate the relationship between the interview measure of MM and children's ToM for the maternal–child data only.     

When punishment is emotion‐driven: Children's,adolescents', and adults' costly punishment of unfair allocations

When do children, adolescents, and adults decide to punish fairness violations? Two studies with 9‐year‐old children, 13‐year‐old adolescents, and adults investigated whether the link between unfairness and punishment was mediated by negative emotional reactions (measured through galvanic skin responses and emotion ratings). Study 1 (N = 117) examined this question in the context of second‐party punishment, where the punisher is a direct victim of the violation. Study 2 (N = 119) assessed third‐party punishment, where the punisher is an observer, unaffected by the violation. In each study, participants were presented with seven distributions of points, which differed in how fairly the points were allocated between a proposer and receiver, and had to decide whether to punish these distributions. Although the unfairness of the distribution strongly influenced second‐ and third‐party punishment in all age groups, the mediating role of emotional appraisals (i.e., galvanic skin responses vs. emotion ratings) depended on whether or not the punisher was personally affected by the violation and age. Thus, negative emotions primarily motivate costly punishment when the punisher is affected by the violation or when an unaffected third‐party punisher takes the perspective of the victim of a violation, an ability that develops between childhood and adolescence.     

Dynamic relationships between children’s higher‐order regulation and lower‐order reactivity predict development of attention problems

Dual‐process theories contend that interplay between higher‐order (i.e., regulatory) and lower‐order (i.e., reactive) systems influences the development of attention in early childhood. We therefore investigated interactions between an aspect of children's top‐down self‐regulation (i.e., effortful control; EC) and positive reactivity (indexed by observed positive affectivity; PA) and negative reactivity (indicated by cortisol stress reactivity and observed fear) in predicting children's early attention problems. We found that observed EC at the age of three predicted lower attention problems 2 years later, controlling for attention problems at baseline. Importantly, the predictive effect of EC was more pronounced for children higher in cortisol stress reactivity at the age of three; this pattern was not found for observed PA or fear. Findings align with dual‐process developmental theories that emphasize the dynamics between regulatory and reactive processes in shaping child development. Our study provides the first evidence supporting dual‐process interactions in the domain of attention problems and has implications for identifying early risk markers and informing early prevention programs for children at greater risk for attention problems.     

Nice and Nasty Theory of Mind in Preschool Children: Nature and Nurture

Experimental research suggests the differentiation of ‘nice’ and ‘nasty’ theory of mind (ToM). Over 5000 parents from the Twins Early Development Study reported on nice (e.g., being considerate) and nasty (e.g., blaming others) behaviours following their twins’ second, third, and fourth birthdays. Factor analyses yielded four factors and it was proposed that these related to prosocial behaviour necessitating ToM (Nice ToM), antisocial behaviour necessitating ToM (Nasty ToM), and prosocial and antisocial behaviour not necessitating ToM (Nice and Nasty). Interscale correlations, gender differences, and their relationship with language were consistent with this distinction. Both ToM scales showed moderate heritability and significant environmental influences (shared and nonshared). Bivariate analyses indicated somewhat distinct aetiological influences on Nice ToM versus Nasty ToM. However, further research is needed to confirm whether this distinction reflects interactions between ToM and temperament, or two underlying genetic and cognitively distinct ToM abilities.     

Experiencing Loneliness in Adolescence: A Matter of Individual Characteristics,Negative Peer Experiences,or Both?

The present study builds on the child‐by‐environment model and examines the joint contribution of intra‐individual characteristics (i.e., self‐esteem and shyness) and peer experiences (i.e., social acceptance, victimization, friendship quantity, and friendship quality) in the association with loneliness. A total of 884 adolescents (M_age = 15.80; 68 percent female) participated in this multi‐informant study. Results indicated that, in addition to self‐esteem and shyness, being poorly accepted by peers, being victimized, lacking friends, and experiencing poor‐quality friendships each contributed independently to the experience of loneliness. Further, friendship quantity and quality mediated the relation between the two intra‐individual characteristics and loneliness. Finally, a significant interaction was found between self‐esteem and social acceptance in predicting loneliness. The present study highlights the importance of investigating the joint effects of inter‐individual experiences and intra‐individual characteristics in examining loneliness. Suggestions to elaborate the child‐by‐environment model in loneliness research are discussed, and clinical implications are outlined.     

Executive function and theory of mind as predictors of socially withdrawn behavior in institutionalized children

False‐belief understanding and executive functions are two main sociocognitive abilities reliably linked to child social competence. Although institution‐reared children are especially at risk for behavioral problems and cognitive delays, the role that executive function and false‐belief understanding might play in the social withdrawal of institutionalized children has not been examined. The current study used two‐wave data to investigate the concurrent and longitudinal relations of social withdrawal with executive function and false‐belief understanding in institutionalized children; it also allowed investigation of the directionality between executive function and false‐belief understanding. Data were collected from 66 Turkish children (T1 M = 57.83 months, SD = 9.20; T2 M = 69.58 months, SD = 8.45) residing in institutions, at two time points, approximately 1 year apart. We measured false‐belief understanding and executive function via individual assessments, and social withdrawal via care provider reports at both time points. Results showed that both executive function and false‐belief understanding increased between T1 and T2, while social withdrawal did not show a significant change. Path analysis revealed that when T1 age and language were controlled, T1 executive function predicted T2 executive function, and in turn, T2 executive function predicted lessened social withdrawal at T2. In addition, T1 executive function predicted T2 false‐belief understanding. T1 false‐belief understanding was not related to T2 false‐belief understanding, executive function, or social withdrawal. Findings suggested that executive function is an important predictor of social withdrawal in high‐risk populations.