Early education shapes theory of mind – A cross-cultural study investigating German and Singaporean preschoolers

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Social Cognition

Abstract

Although children of varying cultural backgrounds master the development of theory of mind (ToM) in general, an increasing number of studies report delays for collectivist, non-western cultures (e.g. Dixson et al., 2018). These findings are occasionally discussed in terms of differences in schooling routines between cultures (Hughes et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2016). Accordingly, previous studies demonstrated that schooling routines vastly differ between western and non-western cultures (Li & Rao, 2005). For instance, children growing up in western societies are exposed to a child-centered pedagogy characterized by the regular expression and discussion of own beliefs and opinions (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). In contrast, children in traditional Asian societies are rather exposed to teacher-directed routines characterized by an emphasis on academic achievement and knowledge acquisition (Chen, 2000). Thus, the amount of mental state communication varies between western and eastern cultures (Wang et al., 2010). Given that the communication of mental states is a crucial factor for the development of ToM abilities (e.g., Ebert et al., 2017), the aforementioned differences in schooling routines may account for variations in ToM development between western and eastern cultures. Wang and colleagues (2016) investigated the association between ToM and these qualitative differences in schooling routines in British and Hong Kong Chinese children attending either westernized or traditional local schools. The results demonstrated that Hong Kong Chinese children attending traditional local schools showed impaired performance on ToM tasks compared to British and Hong Kong Chinese children who attended international schools, whereas the two latter groups did not differ from each other. These findings highlight the importance of culture-specific schooling routines in the development of ToM in school-aged children. However, to date, little is known whether and how early education affects ToM in a cross-cultural setting. To this end, we aimed to investigate preschoolers’ ToM in relation to their experienced schooling routines. A total of 129 four- to six-year-old German preschoolers and Singaporean preschoolers attending two types of preschools were tested with Wellman and Liu´s (2004) ToM scale. One group of Singaporean preschoolers attended westernized preschools implementing child-centered schooling routines, while the other group attended traditional preschools following teacher-directed routines. Overall, Singaporean preschoolers (M = 2.74, SD = 1.25) showed a delay in ToM development compared to German preschoolers (M = 3.22, SD = 1.29) when controlling for socioeconomic status. In accordance with our predictions, Singaporean preschoolers attending westernized preschools performed comparably to German preschoolers, whereas Singaporean preschoolers attending traditional preschools showed an impaired performance. Thus, our study provides valuable new insights in the development of mental state understanding in early childhood in a cross-cultural setting. Besides the replication of a delay in ToM acquisition for non-western cultures, we were able to show that ToM is shaped by micro-cultural factors exceeding the impact of the broad cultural environment. Importantly, we were able to show that these micro-cultural factors modulate children’s ToM already from an early age, independent of the socioeconomic background of children. Further research is required to identify distinct aspects in schooling routines related to ToM.

Authors

• Corina Möller, Saarland University
  Presenting Author

• Gisa Aschersleben, Saarland University
  Non-Presenting Author