Willing and Able? Social Competence, Mindreading and Social Motivation in Middle Childhood and Early Adolescence

• In Event: ToM in Middle Childhood: New Directions and Link to Social Abilities

Abstract

Introduction. The past decade has witnessed an emergence of interest in theory of mind beyond in middle childhood and adolescence. The expanding developmental scope of research on theory of mind has stimulated interest in elucidating the social consequences of theory of mind beyond early childhood (Hughes & Devine, 2015). Individual differences in theory of mind in middle childhood are associated with teacher-rated social competence (Devine et al., 2016) and peer-rated popularity (Banerjee et al., 2011). The current study extends this work by examining, for the first time, the role of motivational factors in understanding the social consequences of theory of mind in middle childhood and adolescence.
Aims. The current study had two aims: (1) to test whether social motivation (a tendency to seek out, maintain, and derive pleasure from social interactions) is associated with theory of mind (Chevalier et al., 2012); (2) to examine the unique contribution of theory of mind and social motivation to social competence in middle childhood and adolescence.
Participants. 264 children (136 girls, 128 boys) aged between 8.46 and 13.53 years, M Age = 10.88 years, SD = 1.45, participated in the study. The children were socio-economically and ethnically diverse: 15.9% of the children received Free School Meals (given to pupils whose caregivers are in receipt of state income support) and 24.2% spoke languages in addition to English at home.
Method. Children completed two age-appropriate measures of theory of mind in which they were asked to explain the behavior of characters depicted in short vignettes (Strange Stories Task – Happé, 1994) and brief silent film clips (Silent Film Task – Devine & Hughes, 2013). Children also completed three questionnaires designed to capture individual differences in social motivation focusing on social orientation (Coplan et al., 2013), social interest (Kazdin, 1989), and desire to build and maintain social bonds or ‘social maintenance motivation’ (Rudolph et al., 2011). Teachers rated each child’s social competence by scoring children against their same-aged peers on different social skills (e.g., leadership, assertion).
Results. Three key findings emerged from the data. First, there was a unique positive association between social maintenance motivation (i.e., the desire to build and maintain social bonds) and theory of mind (Table 2) even when differences in age, socio-economic status, gender, and verbal ability were considered (Figure 3). Second, both theory of mind and social maintenance motivation were uniquely positively associated with teacher-rated social competence (Figure 3). Follow-up analyses revealed that these associations did not vary by age, b = .09, 95%CI [-.08, .27], p = .29. Third, there was a significant indirect association between social maintenance motivation and teacher-rated social competence via theory of mind, b = -.045, 95%CI [-.079, -.011], p =.009, suggesting that the link between social maintenance motivation and social competence at school is partly explained by mindreading ability. These results provide direct evidence for a link between social motivation and theory of mind in middle childhood and early adolescence and suggest that theory-of-mind ability might partly explain social success among socially motivated children.
 

Author

• Rory T. Devine, University of Birmingham
  Presenting Author