Poster #60 - Relations among Children's Social Competence, Theory of Mind, and Depressive Symptoms

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

Background: This study investigated associations among depression, theory of mind, and social competence in children. Social competence (SC) is the set of skills needed to forge positive social relationships (Rose & Krasnor, 1997). Theory of mind (ToM) is the capacity to understand others' behaviors through attributing mental states to them (Frith & Frith, 2006). Poor SC and ToM are linked to youth's depressive symptoms (Cole, Jacquez, & Maschman, 2001; Liddle & Nettle, 2006). In cognitive behavioral interventions for depression, poor ToM may impede children's ability to challenge negative thoughts about other people's beliefs about them. Understanding the associations among ToM, depression, and SC in youth could inform the construction of more developmentally appropriate interventions for depression.

Method: Participants were 98 children (63 males) ages 8- to 15-years-old (M=10.89, SD=1.91). To assess theory of mind, children completed the Flexibility and Automaticity of Social Cognition task (FASC; Hayward, Homer, & Sprung, 2016), which includes eight cartoons, followed by questions about the characters' behavior. Scores included the number of internal state terms (ISTs) or references to mental states children provided. Children also completed the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (C-CES-DC; Roberts et al., 1990) to assess depressive symptoms. Parents completed the Children's Social Understanding Scale (CSUS; Tahiroglu, et al., 2014), the Social Skills Subscale of the Social Skills Improvement System (Gresham & Elliot, 2008) to assess children's social competence (SC).

Results: First, we examined partial correlations among depression, SC, and ToM (Table 1). Parents' reports of children's SC correlated significantly with children's depressive symptoms (r = -.263, p = .029) and with children's ToM (r = .569, p =.000). The association between Internal State Terms and children depressive symptoms also was significant (r = -.223, p=.031).

We next tested whether children's ToM partially mediated the relation between children's social competence and depressive symptoms (see Figure 1). The relation between parents' reports of SC and children's reports of their depressive symptoms was significant (p = .044) but becomes nonsignificant when accounting for number of internal state terms used on the FASC (a measure of ToM; p = .105). These results suggest that ToM may partially mediate the relation between social competence and depression.

Conclusions: This multi-informant study found significant associations among deficits in children's social competence, theory of mind, and depressive symptoms. Parents' reports of children's SC correlated with children's report of their depressive symptoms. Additionally, mediation analyses showed that ToM (e.g., number of references to mental states) partially mediated the relation between parents' reports of children's social competence and children's reports of depression. Thus, poor theory of mind may be one pathway through which poor social competence contributes to depressive symptoms in children. Future studies should utilize more robust measures (i.e. clinical interviews to assess depression, peer ratings of SC), and a longitudinal design to more precisely examine the relations among theory of mind, depressive symptoms, and social competence in order to derive the best methods for teaching perspective-taking in interventions for depression in youth.

Authors

• Haley Green, Vanderbilt University
  Presenting Author

• Kelsey Clayback, Vanderbilt University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kurstyn Morley, Vanderbilt University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Judy Garber, Vanderbilt University
  Non-Presenting Author