Theory of Mind and School Experiences in Children and Young Adolescents

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Theory of Mind (ToM) or the ability to mentalize or think about other people’s thoughts and emotions is essential to effective functioning within the school context that involves a complex myriad of academic and social-emotional new experiences with related pressures and challenges. Despite this importance, few studies explore how school-related influences and ToM change across childhood, especially over time, gender, and cultures. This symposium presents four studies that employ different measures of advanced ToM and school-related outcomes (social and academic) in children and adolescents from different countries.
Paper 1 investigates the role of teacher-child relationships in links between Polish 7-8 year old children’s ToM, teacher-child relationships, and social competence. Results showed that emotionally close teacher-child relationships helped children with high ToM to cope socially and show social competence.
Paper 2 examines ToM and reading performance in 8-9 year old German children over time, and found that the ability to reason about social events in grade 3 predicted reading performance in grade 4.
Paper 3 investigates the links among ToM, academic self-concept, and academic performance about school experiences in German 12-year olds. Results showed academic self-concept mediated the relations between ToM and academic performance for girls only.
Paper 4 examines ToM and school influences in 8-13 year-old children living in the United Kingdom and examines the links between participation in racially/ethnically diverse classrooms, cross race/ethnicity friendships, and ToM. Results show how friendships with diverse peers serve as a training ground for ToM.

Sub Unit

• Social Cognition

Chair

• Sandra Bosacki, Brock University

Individual Presentations

• Does emotional closeness with the teacher mediate the links between children’s AToM and social functioning? - Presenting Author: Joanna Smogorzewska, University of Warsaw; Grzegorz Szumski, University of Warsaw; Sandra Bosacki, Brock University

• (Mind-)reading skills in 9- to 10-year-olds: Prospective associations between Theory of Mind and text comprehension - Presenting Author: Christopher Osterhaus, University of Vechta; Susanne Koerber, Freiburg University of Education; Serena Lecce, University of Pavia

• Theory of Mind and academic self-concept in early adolescence: The role of gender - Presenting Author: Natalie Christner, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; Markus Paulus, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; Sandra Bosacki, Brock University

• Classroom ethnic diversity, cross-ethnicity friendships, and theory of mind in middle childhood and early adolescence - Presenting Author: Rory T. Devine, University of Birmingham; Luca ronchi, University of Pavia; Serena Lecce, University of Pavia