Better Theory of Mind is Associated with Fewer Enactments of Pretence by 4-5-year-old Play Partners

• In Event: Pretend Play with Peers: International Perspectives on Links Between Social Pretend Play and Social-emotional Competences

Abstract

One view of social pretend play is that it is an important context for children to practice and refine social skills that draw on competences such as theory of mind (ToM) and language abilities. When analysing these relations, however, the ToM literature often makes the implicit assumption that the association between a child’s ToM and their pretend play is independent from that of their play partner’s. Ignoring the possibility of peer influences and the social context of pretend play may be problematic, as recent research has demonstrated the interdependence of children’s play interactions (Etel & Slaughter, 2019, Gibson et al., 2019). The current study examines the association between ToM and pretend play using analyses that account for the interactional context, i.e. Actor-Partner Interdependence Modelling, to investigate both the role of an individual’s (actor) and their playmate’s (partner) ToM for social pretend play.
Participants were 190 children (52% boys, Mage=61 months; SD=4.6) recruited from UK schools and observed playing together in same-sex pairs. Social pretend play, comprising play enactment and negation (both role assignment and joint proposals) were coded on a second by second basis from the play observations (mean length of coded play interactions = 7.69 min, SD = 59 s). Inter-rater reliability for play codes was high; Cohen’s k for role assignment = .83, joint proposals = .79, and enactment = 0.75. Theory of mind was assessed individually using standard first- and second-order false belief tasks. A comprehensive index of language ability was included in all analyses.
Findings showed that both the child’s and their play partner’s ToM predicted enactment of pretend play, such that children and their partners with less sophisticated ToM engaged in more pretend play enactment (see Table 1).
We suggest that these findings mean that by 5-years-of-age, pretend play enactment with a peer may represent an immature social play behaviour, an interpretation supported by an inverse association between language ability and play enactment. There was no association between ToM and play negotiation. The implications of these findings for our understanding the role of ToM for children’s social competence, as well as the ‘real-world’ implications of ToM understanding will be discussed.

Authors

• Elian Fink, University of Cambridge
  Presenting Author

• Jenny Gibson, University of Cambridge
  Non-Presenting Author