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Mind‐Mindedness and Theory of Mind: Mediating Roles of Language and Perspectival Symbolic Play
Author(s) -
Meins Elizabeth,
Fernyhough Charles,
Arnott Bronia,
Leekam Susan R.,
Rosnay Marc
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.12061
Subject(s) - psychology , theory of mind , cognitive science , cognitive psychology , cognition , developmental psychology , social psychology , neuroscience
Relations among indices of maternal mind‐mindedness (appropriate and nonattuned mind‐related comments) and children's: (a) internal state vocabulary and perspectival symbolic play at 26 months ( N = 206), and (b) theory of mind (ToM) at 51 months ( n = 161) were investigated. Appropriate comments were positively associated with ToM, but were unrelated to internal state language and perspectival symbolic play. Nonattuned comments were negatively correlated with internal state language and perspectival symbolic play, but were unrelated to ToM. Path analyses indicated that the best fit model assumed: (a) indirect links between nonattuned comments and ToM via children's perspectival symbolic play, (b) a direct link between appropriate comments and ToM, and (c) an indirect link between appropriate comments and ToM via children's concurrent receptive verbal ability.