The Relation between Theory of Mind and Responses to Parent Disagreement about Religious Beliefs in Early Childhood

• In Event: Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Topic - Cognitive Processes

Abstract

Prior research has found that certain aspects of the parent-child relationship play a role in children’s formation of independent thinking. Positive aspects of parent-child interactions, such as providing choices and encouragement, promote children’s autonomy. In contrast, negative aspects like parental pressure and correction hinder children’s autonomy (Grusec & Davidov, 2007; Joussemet et al., 2005). Theory of mind (ToM), which is also developing throughout childhood, involves understanding actions of the self and others as a reflection of a person’s desires, emotions, beliefs, intentions, and other mental states (Wellman et al., 2003). ToM skills may support children’s independent thinking. The current study examined whether children’s ToM ability was related to independent thinking in the face of parental disagreement.

Participants were 127 parent-child dyads with children between the ages of 3.38 to 5.95 (Mage = 4.56, SD = 0.68; 56.7% female), diverse in race and ethnicity: 57.1% White; 30.2% Latinx; 5.6% African American; 2.4% Native American; 0.8% Asian; and 4.0% Other. Parents ranged in age from 23 to 56 (Mage = 32.56, SD = 6.21; 92.8% female) and all parents reported religious affiliation: 35.4% Protestant; 30.7% Catholic; 28.3% Non-affiliate; 5.5% Other. Parents read 9 vignettes aloud to the child with embedded discussion questions to facilitate conversation about whether it would be possible for the request type to work. The vignettes systematically varied on 3 dimensions: domain (physical, biological, psychological), type of request (prayer, wish, want), and actions (typical prayer, typical wish, irrelevant). Parents either agreed or disagreed with the child’s response to prompted questions throughout the storybook. The interaction was coded for the frequency of parental agreement (M = 8.90; SD = 6.521; range = 0 to 29), frequency of parental disagreement (M = 7.40; SD = 9.247, range = 0 to 58), and whether or not the child changed their original answer in cases where the parent disagreed. When faced with parents who disagreed, children changed their answer about once on average (M = .97, SD =1.727; range = 0 to 9). Children’s ToM was measured with a two-step partially occluded picture task, resembling the task used by Barrett, Newman, and Richert (2003).

A logistic regression examined the frequency of parent disagreement and ToM entered as fixed effects, the interaction of ToM and frequency of parent disagreement, and a dichotomous outcome of whether the child changed their answer. In examining the interaction, children with increased theory of mind capability were less likely to change their original responses to conform when the parent disagreed (B = -.198, p = .033, 95% CI [-.380,-.016]).

In summary, children overall did not change their answers regardless of whether or not the parent agreed or disagreed, and theory of mind impacted the relation between children’s persistent independent thinking and parental disagreement. These findings suggest that theory of mind capability might help children maintain their autonomous thinking when engaged in conversational dyads with parents, peers, and others.

Authors

• Alisha Conover, University of California - Riverside
  Presenting Author

• Rebekah Richert, University of California - Riverside
  Non-Presenting Author