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Exploring Longitudinal Associations Between Disaggregation of Theory of Mind Dimensions and Children’s Symptoms of Psychopathology

Fri, October 5, 4:45 to 6:15pm, Doubletree Hilton, Room: Fiesta II and III

Abstract

Theory of Mind (ToM) develops rapidly during the preschool period and deficits in ToM are associated with symptoms of psychopathology and poor social competence in children (Brüne, & Brüne-Cohrs, 2006; Osa, Granero, Domènech, Shamay-Tsoory, & Ezpeleta, 2016). Although ToM develops, it is comprised of multiple dimensions which may not grow uniformly (Hughes & Leekam, 2004). This disaggregation of dimensions, or patterns of disaggregation, may confer risk for specific types of psychopathology or deficits in social competence. In a recent study conducted in our lab, preschoolers whose mothers had elevated symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder (which is known to confer significant risk of psychopathology for offspring) had on average similar ToM scores compared to their non-at-risk peers but demonstrated lower scores in affective perspective taking (an emotion-related dimension of ToM). Unfortunately, this dataset, cannot depict the pattern by which this disaggregation emerges or its longitudinal association with various patterns of children’s emerging symptoms of psychopathology and social competence. Further, this dataset is limited by its modest size (n = 68) and racial/ethnic diversity (63% Caucasian). An ideal dataset to address this question would include longitudinal assessments of preschoolers’ ToM using the same multidimensional assessment battery at each assessment in a diverse sample in which some children are at elevated risk for developing psychopathology. Additionally, such a dataset would include assessments of children’s symptoms of psychopathology and/or social competence at the final assessment and perhaps domains related to ToM for which deficits also signal emerging psychopathology (e.g. executive functioning, emotion regulation).

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