Does Parental Mind-Mindedness Account for Cross-Cultural Differences in Preschoolers' Theory of Mind?

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Date
2018-07-01
Open Access Location
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Rights
(c) 2017 The Author/s
CC BY 4.0
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.
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Keywords
Child, Preschool, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Female, Hong Kong, Humans, Male, Parent-Child Relations, Parents, Theory of Mind, United Kingdom
Citation
Hughes C, Devine RT, Wang Z. (2018). Does Parental Mind-Mindedness Account for Cross-Cultural Differences in Preschoolers' Theory of Mind?. Child Dev. 89. 4. (pp. 1296-1310).
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