Does parental mind-mindedness account for cross-cultural differences in preschoolers' theory of mind?

Claire Hughes; Rory Devine; Zhenlin Wang

doi:10.1111/cdev.12746

Does parental mind-mindedness account for cross-cultural differences in preschoolers' theory of mind?

Claire Hughes^*, Rory Devine, Zhenlin Wang

^*Corresponding author for this work

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

32 Citations (Scopus)

252 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This study of 241 parent-child dyads from the United Kingdom (N = 120, M_age = 3.92, SD = 0.53) and Hong Kong (N = 121, M_age = 3.99, SD = 0.50) breaks new ground by adopting a cross-cultural approach to investigate children's theory of mind and parental mind-mindedness. Relative to the Hong Kong sample, U.K. children showed superior theory-of-mind performance and U.K. parents showed greater levels of mind-mindedness. Within both cultures parental mind-mindedness was correlated with theory of mind. Mind-mindedness also accounted for cultural differences in preschoolers' theory of mind. We argue that children's family environments might shed light on how culture shapes children's theory of mind.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1296-1310
Number of pages	15
Journal	Child Development
Volume	89
Issue number	4
Early online date	3 Feb 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12746
Publication status	Published - Jul 2018

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health
Education
Developmental and Educational Psychology

Access to Document

10.1111/cdev.12746Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY)

HughesC2017ParentalFinal published version, 499 KBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY)

https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12746Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY)

Cite this

@article{4755319f10dc4773aee7cc5c7c6b274f,

title = "Does parental mind-mindedness account for cross-cultural differences in preschoolers' theory of mind?",

abstract = "This study of 241 parent-child dyads from the United Kingdom (N = 120, Mage = 3.92, SD = 0.53) and Hong Kong (N = 121, Mage = 3.99, SD = 0.50) breaks new ground by adopting a cross-cultural approach to investigate children's theory of mind and parental mind-mindedness. Relative to the Hong Kong sample, U.K. children showed superior theory-of-mind performance and U.K. parents showed greater levels of mind-mindedness. Within both cultures parental mind-mindedness was correlated with theory of mind. Mind-mindedness also accounted for cultural differences in preschoolers' theory of mind. We argue that children's family environments might shed light on how culture shapes children's theory of mind.",

author = "Claire Hughes and Rory Devine and Zhenlin Wang",

year = "2018",

month = jul,

doi = "10.1111/cdev.12746",

language = "English",

volume = "89",

pages = "1296--1310",

journal = "Child Development",

issn = "0009-3920",