Early manifestations of children's theory of mind: The roles of maternal mind-mindedness and infant security of attachment

Infancy

Volumn 15, Issue 3, 2010, Pages 300-323

  Laranjo, Jessica ^a   Bernier, Annie ^a   Meins, Elizabeth ^b   Carlson, Stephanie M ^c  

^a UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL   (Canada)

^b DURHAM UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^c UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; CHILD BEHAVIOR; CHILD DEVELOPMENT; CLINICAL ASSESSMENT; COGNITION; EMOTION; EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT; HUMAN; MENTAL HEALTH; MOTHER CHILD RELATION; SOCIAL COMPETENCE;

EID: 77956004788     PISSN: 15250008     EISSN: 15327078     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-7078.2009.00014.x     Document Type: Article

References (96)

1. Ainsworth M D, Blehar M C, Waters E, Wall S. Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation 1978, Hillsdale, NJ, Erlbaum
2. Astington J W, Harris P L, Olson D R. Developing theories of mind 1988, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
3. Banerjee M. Hidden emotions: Preschoolers' knowledge of appearance-reality and emotion display rules. Social Cognition 1997, 15:107-132.
4. Baron R M, Kenny D A. The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1986, 51:1173-1182.
5. Bartsch K, Wellman H M. Children talk about the mind 1995, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press
6. Beeghly M, Bretherton I, Mervis C. Mothers' internal state language to toddlers. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 1986, 4:247-260.
7. Belsky J. Theory testing, effect-size evaluation, and differential susceptibility to rearing influence: The case of mothering and attachment. Child Development 1997, 64:598-600.
8. Belsky J. Differential susceptibility to rearing influence. Origins of the social mind: Evolutionary psychology and child development 2005, 139-163. Ellis B JBjorklund D F., New York, Guilford Press
9. Bosacki S, Astington J. Theory of mind in preadolescence: Relations between social understanding and social competence. Social Development 1999, 8:237-255.
10. Brooks R, Meltzoff A N. The importance of eyes: How infants interpret adult looking behavior. Developmental Psychology 2002, 38:958-966.
11. Carlson S M, Mandell D J, Williams L. Executive function and theory of mind: Stability and prediction from age 2 to 3. Developmental Psychology 2004, 40:1105-1122.
12. Carpendale J E M, Lewis C. Constructing an understanding of mind: The development of children's understanding of mind within social interaction. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2004, 27:79-150.
13. Carpendale J E M, Lewis C. How children develop social understanding 2006, Oxford, Blackwell
14. Cassidy K W, Fineberg D S, Brown K, Perkins A. Theory of mind may be contagious, but you don't catch it from your twin. Child Development 2005, 76:97-106.
15. Charman T, Ruffman T, Clements W. Is there a gender difference in false belief development? Social Development 2002, 11:1-10.
16. Cohen L B, Cashon C H. Infant cognition. Handbook of child psychology: Vol 2, Cognition, perception, and language 2006, 214-251. Kuhn D, Siegler R SDamon WLerner R M. In, Eds, 6th ed., pp, New York, John Wiley & Sons Inc
17. Cohn D A. Child-mother attachment of six-year-olds and social competence at school. Child Development 1990, 61:152-162.
18. Cutting A, Dunn J. Theory of mind, emotion understanding, language and family background: Individual differences and inter-relations. Child Development 1999, 70:853-865.
19. de Rosnay M, Harris P L. Individual differences in children's understanding of emotion: The roles of attachment and language. Attachment and Human Development 2002, 4:39-45.
20. de Rosnay M, Pons F, Harris P L, Morrell J M B. A lag between understanding false belief and emotion attribution in young children: Relationships with linguistic ability and mothers' mental-state language. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 2004, 22:197-218.
21. de Villiers J G, de Villiers P A. Linguistic determinism and false belief. Children's reasoning and the mind 2000, 191-228. Mitchell P, Riggs K., Hove, UK, Psychology Press
22. Dionne G, Tremblay R, Boivin M, Laplante D, Perusse D. Physical aggression and expressive vocabulary in 19-month-old twins. Developmental Psychology 2003, 39:261-273.
23. Dunn J, Bretherton I, Munn P. Conversations about feeling states between mothers and their young children. Developmental Psychology 1987, 23:132-139.
24. Dunn J, Brown J, Beardsall L. Family talk about feeling states and children's later understanding of others' emotions. Developmental Psychology 1991, 27:448-455.
25. Dunn J, Brown J, Slomkowski C, Tesla C, Youngblade L. Young children's understanding of other people's feelings and beliefs: Individual differences and their antecedents. Child Development 1991, 62:1352-1366.
26. Elliot C, Murray D, Pearson L. British abilities scales 1983, Windsor, England, NFER-Nelson
27. Ensor R, Hughes C. Content or connectedness? Mother-child talk and early social understanding. Child Development 2008, 79:201-216.
28. Ereky-Stevens K. Associations between mothers' sensitivity to their infants' internal states and children's later understanding of mind and emotion. Infant and Child Development 2008, 17:527-543.
29. Erickson M, Sroufe L A, Egeland B. The relationship between quality of attachment and behavior problems in preschool in a high risk sample: Growing points in attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 1985, 50:147-186. Bretherton I, Waters E, In, Eds, 1-2, Series No. 209
30. Etzion-Carasso A, Oppenheim D. Open mother-pre-schooler communication: Relations with early secure attachment. Attachment and Human Development 2000, 2:347-370.
31. Farrar M J, Fasig L G, Welch-Ross M K. Attachment and emotion in autobiographical memory development. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 1997, 67:389-408.
32. Fenson L, Dale P S, Reznick J S, Bates E, Thal D J, Pethick S J. Variability in early communicative development. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 1994, 59:1-189. 5, Series No. 242
33. Fenson L, Dale P S, Reznick J S, Thal D, Bates E, Hartung J P, Reilly J S. Technical manual for the MacArthur communicative development inventory 1993, San Diego, CA, Singular Press
34. Flavell J H. The development of knowledge about visual perception. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation 1978, 43-76. Keasey C B. In, Ed, Vol. 25, pp, Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press
35. Flavell J H. Perspectives on perspective taking. Piaget's theory: Prospects and possibilities 1992, 107-134. Beilin HPufall P., Hillsdale, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
36. Flavell J H, Shipstead S G, Croft K. Young children's knowledge about visual perception: Hiding objects from others. Child Development 1978, 49:1208-1211.
37. Fonagy P, Redfern S, Charman T. The relationship between belief-desire reasoning and a projective measure of attachment security (SAT). British Journal of Developmental Psychology 1997, 15:51-61.
38. Frank I, Trudeau N, Poulin-Dubois D. Inventaire MacArthur de la communication: Mots et énoncés 1996, French version of the MCDI, Unpublished manuscript, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
39. Gopnik A, Wellman H. The "theory theory" Domain specificity in culture and cognition 1994, 257-293. Hirschfield L, Gelman S., New York, Cambridge University Press
40. Greig A, Howe D. Social understanding, attachment security of preschool children and maternal mental health. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 2001, 19:381-393.
41. Happé F. The role of age and verbal ability in the theory of mind task performance of subjects with autism. Child Development 1995, 66:843-855.
42. Hughes C, Deater-Deckard K, Cutting A L. 'Speak roughly to your little boy'? Sex differences in the relations between parenting and preschoolers' understanding of mind. Social Development 1999, 8:143-160.
43. Hughes C, Ensor R. Theory of mind and executive function: A family affair? Developmental Neuropsychology 2005, 28:645-668.
44. Hughes C, Ensor R. Behavioural problems in 2-year-olds: Links with individual differences in theory of mind, executive function and harsh parenting. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 2006, 47:488-497.
45. Hughes C, Leekam S. What are the links between theory of mind and social relations? Review, reflections and new directions for studies of typical and atypical development. Social Development 2004, 13:590-619.
46. Huttenlocher J, Smiley P. Emerging notions of persons. Biological and psychological approaches to emotion 1990, 200-225. Stein N, Leventhal BTrabasso T., Hillsdale, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
47. Jenkins J M, Terrell S L, Kogushi Y, Lollis S, Ross H S. A longitudinal investigation of the dynamics of mental state talk in families. Child Development 2003, 74:905-920.
48. Klagsbrun M, Bowlby J. Responses to separation from parents: A clinical test for young children. Projective Psychology 1976, 21:7-27.
49. LaBounty J, Wellman H M, Olson S, Lagattuta K H, Liu D. Mothers' and fathers' use of internal state language. Social Development 2008, 17:757-775.
50. Laible D J, Thompson R A. Attachment and emotional understanding in preschool children. Developmental Psychology 1998, 34:1038-1045.
51. Laible D J, Thompson R A. Mother-child discourse, attachment security, shared positive affect, and early conscience development. Child Development 2000, 71:1424-1440.
52. Lewis M, Feiring C, McGuffog C, Jaskir J. Predicting psychopathology in six-year-olds from early social relations. Child Development 1984, 55:123-136.
53. Lohmann H, Tomasello M. The role of language in the development of false belief understanding: A training study. Child Development 2003, 74:1130-1144.
54. Luo Y, Baillargeon R. Do 12.5-month-old infants consider what objects others can see when interpreting their actions? Cognition 2007, 105:489-512.
55. Maccoby E E. The two sexes: Growing up apart, coming together 1998, Cambridge, MA, Belknap Press/Harvard University Press
56. Madigan S, Pederson D, Moran G. Unresolved states of mind, disorganized attachment relationships, and disrupted mother-infant interactions of adolescent mothers and their infants. Developmental Psychology 2006, 42:293-304.
57. Main M. Metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive monitoring, and singular (coherent) versus multiple (incoherent) models of attachment. Attachment across the life cycle 1991, 125-159. Parkes C MStevenson-Hinde JMarris P., London, Routledge
58. Meins E. Security of attachment and the social development of cognition 1997, Hove, England, Psychology Press
59. Meins E, Fernyhough C. Linguistic acquisitional style and mentalising development: The role of maternal mind-mindedness. Cognitive Development 1999, 14:363-380.
60. Meins E, Fernyhough C, Fradley E, Tuckey M. Rethinking maternal sensitivity: Mother's comments on infant's mental processes predict security of attachment at 12 months. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 2001, 42:637-648.
61. Meins E, Fernyhough C, Russell J, Clark-Carter D. Security of attachment as a predictor of symbolic and mentalising abilities: A longitudinal study. Social Development 1998, 7:1-24.
62. Meins E, Fernyhough C, Wainwright R, Clark-Carter D, Das Gupta M, Fradley E, Tuckey M. Pathways to understanding mind: Constructs validity and predictive validity of maternal mind-mindedness. Child Development 2003, 74:1194-1211.
63. Meins E, Fernyhough C, Wainwright R, Das Gupta M, Fradley E, Tuckey M. Maternal mind-mindedness and attachment security as predictors of theory of mind understanding. Child Development 2002, 73:1715-1726.
64. Milligan K, Astington J W, Dack L A. Language and theory of mind: Meta analysis of the relation between language ability and false-belief understanding. Child Development 2007, 78:622-646.
65. Onishi K H, Baillargeon R. Do 15-month-old infants understand false beliefs? Science 2005, 308:255-258.
66. Ontai L L, Thompson R A. Patterns of attachment and maternal discourse effects on children's emotion understanding from 3- to 5-years of age. Social Development 2002, 11:433-450.
67. Ontai L L, Thompson R A. Attachment, parent-child discourse and theory-of-mind development. Social Development 2008, 17:47-60.
68. Pears K C, Moses L J. Demographics, parenting, and theory of mind in preschool children. Social Development 2003, 12:1-20.
69. Pederson D R, Moran G. A categorical description of infant-mother relationships in the home and its relation to Q-sort measures of infant-mother interaction. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 1995, 60:111-132. 2-3, Series No. 244
70. Perner J. Understanding the representational mind 1991, Cambridge, MIT Press
71. Piaget J. Judgment and reasoning in the child 1928, Paterson, NJ, Littlefield, Adams, & Co
72. Poulin F, Pedersen S. Developmental changes in gender composition of friendship networks in adolescent girls and boys. Developmental Psychology 2007, 43:1484-1496.
73. Poulin-Dubois D, Sodian B, Metz U, Tilden J, Schoeppner B. Out of sight is not out of mind: Developmental changes in infants' understanding of visual perception during the second year. Journal of Cognition and Development 2007, 8:401-425.
74. Raikes H A, Thompson R A. Family emotional climate, attachment security, and young children's emotion knowledge in a high-risk sample. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 2006, 24:89-104.
75. Repacholi B, Gopnik A. Early understanding of desires: Evidence from 14 and 18-month-olds. Developmental Psychology 1997, 33:12-21.
76. Repacholi B, Trapolini T. Attachment and preschool children's understanding of maternal versus non-maternal psychological states. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 2004, 22:395-416.
77. Ronald A, Happé F, Hughes C, Plomin R. Nice and nasty theory of mind in preschool children: Nature and nurture. Social Development 2005, 14:664-684.
78. Rose A J, Rudolph K D. Potential trade-offs for the emotional and behavioural development of girls and boys. Psychological Bulletin 2006, 132:98-131.
79. Ruffman T, Garnham W, Rideout P. Social understanding in autism: Eye gaze as a measure of core insights. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 2001, 42:1083-1094.
80. Ruffman T, Perner J, Naito M, Parkin L, Clements W A. Older (but not younger) siblings facilitate false belief understanding. Developmental Psychology 1998, 34:161-174.
81. Ruffman T, Slade L, Crowe E. The relation between children's and mothers' mental state language and theory-of-mind understanding. Child Development 2002, 73:734-751.
82. Song H, Baillargeon R. Infants' reasoning about others' false perceptions. Developmental Psychology 2008, 44:1789-1795.
83. Steele H, Steele M, Croft C, Fonagy P. Infant-mother attachment at one year predicts children's understanding of mixed emotions at six years. Social Development 1999, 8:161-178.
84. Symons D K. Mental state discourse, theory of mind understanding and the internalization of self-other understanding. Developmental Review 2004, 24:159-188.
85. Symons D K, Clark S E. A longitudinal study of mother-child relationships and theory of mind in the preschool period. Social Development 2000, 9:3-23.
86. Symons D K, Fossum K, Collins T B K. A longitudinal study of belief and desire state discourse during mother-child play and later false belief understanding. Social Development 2006, 15:676-692.
87. Tager-Flusberg H. Language and understanding minds: Connections in autism. Understanding other minds: Perspectives from developmental cognitive neuroscience 2000, 129-154. Baron-Cohen STager-Flusberg HCohen D J. In, Eds, 2nd ed., pp, New York, Oxford University Press
88. Taumoepeau M, Ruffman T. Mother and infant talk about mental states relates to desire language and emotion understanding. Child Development 2006, 77:465-481.
89. Taumoepeau M, Ruffman T. Stepping stones to others' minds: Maternal talk relates to child mental state language and emotion understanding at 15, 24, and 33 months. Child Development 2008, 79:284-302.
90. Tomasello M. The cultural origins of human cognition 2000, Cambridge, Harvard University Press
91. Turner P J. Relations between attachment, gender, and behavior with peers in preschool. Child Development 1991, 62:1475-1488.
92. van IJzendoorn M H, Vereijken C M J L, Bakermans-Kranenburg M J, Riksen-Walraven J M. Assessing attachment security with the Attachment Q sort: Metaanalytic evidence for the validity of the observer AQS. Child Development 2004, 75:1188-1213.
93. Waters E, Deane K E. Defining and assessing individual differences in attachment behavior: Q-methodology and the organization of behavior in infancy and early childhood: Growing points of attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 1985, 50:41-65. Bretherton I, Waters E. In, Eds, 1-2, Serial No. 209
94. Wellman H M. The child's theory of mind 1990, Cambridge, MIT Press
95. Wellman H M, Banerjee M. Mind and emotion: Children's understanding of the emotional consequences of beliefs and desires. Journal of Developmental Psychology 1991, 9:191-214.
96. Wellman H M, Cross D, Watson J. Meta-analysis of theory-of-mind development: The truth about false belief. Child Development 2001, 72:655-684.