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Links between attachment and theory of mind in childhood: Meta‐analytic review
Author(s) -
Szpak M.,
BiałeckaPikul M.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
social development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.078
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1467-9507
pISSN - 0961-205X
DOI - 10.1111/sode.12432
Subject(s) - psychology , theory of mind , meta analysis , association (psychology) , developmental psychology , attachment theory , cognitive psychology , cognition , psychotherapist , psychiatry , medicine
Theoretical models suggest a relation between children's attachment and their theory of mind (ToM), but existing empirical studies are inconclusive with respect to the existence and magnitude of this association. We present the first meta‐analytic review of available studies on the attachment‐ToM association during childhood. Fifteen research on attachment‐ToM links among typically developed children aged 2 to 6 were reviewed and 12 studies that report correlations between attachment and ToM ( N = 629) were included in a quantitative meta‐analysis. Meta‐analytic results showed that the higher attachment security, the better ToM skills; the combined effect size for this association was moderate, r = .30. These findings are discussed in‐depth and future research directions are proposed.