Sandra Bosacki

Theory of Mind in Preadolescence: Relations Between Social Understanding and Social Competence

Theory of mind (ToM) underlies the ability to attribute mental states to people as a way of understanding their social behaviour. Although ToM development is an active area of research, most empirical investigations focus on infants and young children. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to assess ToM in preadolescents and to determine whether individual differences in this mentalizing ability relate to social competence and relate differently for girls and for boys. It was hypothesized that preadolescents’ ability to understand thoughts and emotions in others would be associated with their social competence. 128 preadolescents (64 girls; 64 boys; mean age 11-9) completed peer social competence ratings, a vocabulary task, and participated in a social understanding (ToM) interview. Teacher ratings of the participants’ social competence were also collected. Based on composite ToM scores, results indicated positive associations between ToM and (a) peer ratings of social-interaction skills, (b) general vocabulary ability. Separate gender analyses revealed significant effects. Results are discussed in relation to (1) individual differences in social understanding and social competence and (2) effects of socio-cultural context.

Peer relationships and internalizing problems in adolescents: mediating role of self‐esteem

This study examined whether self‐esteem mediated the association between peer relationships and internalizing problems (i.e., depression and social anxiety). A total of 7290 (3756 girls) adolescents (ages 13–18 years) completed self‐report measures of peer relationships, including direct and indirect victimization, social isolation, friendship attachment (alienation and trust) and friendship quality (conflict and support), as well as self‐esteem, social anxiety and depression. Regression analyses indicated that self‐esteem partially mediated the relations between social isolation, friendship attachment (alienation) and both depression and social anxiety, whereas friendship attachment (trust) was a partial mediator for depression only. Overall, linkages between peer relationships and depression were more strongly mediated by self‐esteem than those between peer relationships and social anxiety. Theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.

‘Sounds good to me’: Canadian children's perceptions of popular music

This cross-sectional study explored the role of age and socioeconomic status (SES) in relation to childrens popular musical preferences. As part of a larger, multi-method, longitudinal study on childrens and adolescents’ self-views and media preference, the present study investigated the popular music section of a self-report questionnaire. Data was gathered in four Canadian schools (two mid-low SES, two mid-high SES), and completed by 168 school-aged children from Grades 1, 4 and 6, with an approximately equal number of girls and boys in each grade. Results suggest that music is important to children, and that across ages and socioeconomic status, the majority of children shared common preferences concerning popular music types, the most common being pop and rock, followed by hip-hop and rap. In response to questions regarding their interpretation of favorite songs, childrens rationale reflected their developmental level of understanding. Results are discussed in terms of educational and clinical programs that promote critical media literacy.

Adolescent Non-Involvement in Multiple Risk Behaviors: An Indicator of Successful Development?

Based on the conceptualization of successful development as the joint maximization of desirable outcomes and minimization of undesirable outcomes (Baltes, 1997), the present study examined connections between adolescent non-involvement in multiple risk behaviors and positive developmental status. Results from a survey of 7290 high school students were used to define four profiles of risk behavior involvement (complete non-involvement, some involvement, some high-risk involvement, predominantly high-risk involvement) based on self-reported involvement in nine risk behaviors (alcohol, smoking, marijuana, hard drugs, sexual activity, minor and major delinquency, direct and indirect aggression). Groups were compared across intrapersonal (risk behavior attitudes, temperament, well-being, religiosity, academic orientation), interpersonal (parental relations, parental monitoring, friendship quality, victimization, unstructured activities), and environmental (school climate, neighborhood conditions) domains. Despite some similarities between the complete non-involvement and some involvement groups, the complete non-involvement group had the most positive self-reports compared to each of the other groups in each developmental domain. At the same time, higher levels of positive development were not exclusive to the complete non-involvement group. Implications for research and theory related to connections between adolescent non-involvement in risk behaviors and successful development are discussed.

Canadian children’s perceptions of spirituality: diverse voices

Few researchers have explored children’s understandings of spirituality. Thus, Canadian children from different religious, spiritual and cultural backgrounds were asked open-ended questions concerning their spiritual thoughts, beliefs and experiences. Parents of participants completed a demographic questionnaire and reported children’s religious affiliation. Regardless of children’s religious background, six prominent themes emerged: (1) Positive feelings when praying or thinking about God, (2) God’s location, (3) God helps, (4) God as a listener, (5) Soul and spirit and (6) God is a comforter. Despite diverse faith orientations, children’s responses reflected similar conceptualisations of God as a listener and helper, and conversations with God served as a source of comfort and elicited feelings of happiness. Discussion involves educational implications of children’s spirituality for diverse learning contexts.

Early childhood educators’ reflections on teaching practices: the role of gender and culture

Early childhood educators (ECEs) have a unique perspective when discussing the gender identity and gender orientation of children of preschool age. They work with children who spend a large amount of time in parallel play in both same and mixed-gender play groups. ECEs also have the experience of working with children with diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, as well as varying gender identities. Following participation in an online survey (as part of a larger mixed-methods research project), ECEs were invited to share contact information to participate in a more in-depth, semi-structured telephone interview. Through the interviews, this study explores ECEs’ perceptions of how their gender and cultural identities play out in the classroom setting, and how they impact others in the class. Findings from content analysis of 41 interviews reveal an emerging research idea amongst participants regarding self-reflection. Three central themes around self-reflection emerged from each participant’s reflection process: (1) professional development; (2) critical self-awareness; and (3) critical thinking. Overall, the present findings suggest early childhood educators deemed the process of self-reflection as quite valuable. It provided the opportunity for all the participants to critically reflect upon, and to further examine their professional identity as an early childhood educator. Indeed, according to the voices of ECEs, the role of reflection plays a crucial role in their teaching and learning beliefs and practices as educators within the early childhood education classroom.

Being mean: children’s gendered perceptions of peer teasing

Recent research suggests that social cognition may play a role in the connections among gendered experiences of teasing within the grade school classroom. Within the framework of social-cognitive developmental theory, this qualitative research study investigates how gender may influence young children’s experiences and perception of teasing within the context of peer relationships. The present study explored the role gender plays in 89 Canadian children’s (4–9 years of age, 39 girls, 50 boys) perceptions of peer teasing through participants’ drawings and accompanying narratives. Results indicate that gender may help shape girls’ and boys’ perceptions of peer teasing in the classroom and suggest the need for educators to build a school culture of kindness, peace, and compassion to enhance children’s social-emotional lives.

Theory of Mind and Social Interest in Zero-Acquaintance Play Situations

Many studies have examined associations between childrens theory of mind and social behavior with familiar peers, but to date none have examined how theory of mind might relate to behavior toward unfamiliar peers in a play setting. Forty-four 4-year-olds (21 girls, 23 boys) participated in standard theory-of-mind tasks and in a play session with 3 or 4 other children who were unfamiliar. Children were also tested on general vocabulary ability. No relations were found between theory of mind and social engagement. However, positive associations were found between theory of mind and time spent observing, but not interacting with, other children. Possible explanations of the links between theory of mind, temperament, and social interest are considered.

Theory of Mind Understanding and Conversational Patterns in Middle Childhood

ABSTRACT The author investigated the longitudinal relations between theory of mind (ToM) understanding and perceptions of self and social conversations in 17 school-aged children (12 girls, 5 boys, age 8–12 years). ToM was assessed at Time 1 (T1; M age = 8 years 5 months, SD = 8.7 months, and perceptions of self and conversational experiences assessed two years later at Time 2 (T2; M age = 10 years 4 months, SD = 7.9 months. Most importantly, longitudinal findings showed that children who scored relatively high on ToM at T1 reported relatively lower perceptions of self-worth and higher number of mental states verbs in their perceptions of peer and family conversations at T2. Significant negative longitudinal associations were found between childrens number of siblings and their perceptions of self-worth (T1) and number of cognitive terms in their perceptions of peer and family conversations (T2). Frequency analysis suggested that girls’ perceptions of conversations referred to more social and psychological aspects of self and relationships, whereas boys focused mainly on physical activities. Most children were more likely to prefer listening to talking during social conversations. The majority of children reported feelings of mixed or ambiguous emotions during experiences of silence. Implications for socioemotional and cognitive development in early adolescents are discussed.

Children's Trait and Emotion Attributions in Socially Ambiguous and Unambiguous Situations.

ABSTRACT Childrens attributions about story characters in ambiguous and unambiguous social situations were assessed. One hundred and forty-four 6–7-year-olds and 10–11-year-olds heard about actors who slighted a recipient intentionally or for an undetermined reason and then made causal attributions about the events, an emotion attribution about the recipient, and global personality attributions about the actors and recipient. Relations between perceived self-competence and attribution style were also assessed. Participants were more likely to make negative causal attributions in the unambiguous condition and with increasing age. Older girls and younger boys were more likely than other groups to attribute negative emotions to the recipient. Overall, participants perceived recipients positively and actors negatively. Perceived self-competence was positively correlated with actor attributions, although these differed by age and gender. Implications for childrens psychosocial adjustment are discussed.