Much is known about when children acquire an understanding of mental states, but few, if any, experiments identify social contexts in which children tend to use this capacity and dispositions that influence its usage. Social exclusion is a common situation that compels us to reconnect with new parties, which may crucially involve attending to those parties’ mental states. Across two studies, this line of inquiry was extended to typically developing preschoolers (Study 1) and young children with and without anxiety disorder (AD) (Study 2). Children played the virtual game of toss “Cyberball” ostensibly over the Internet with two peers who first played fair (inclusion), but eventually threw very few balls to the child (exclusion). Before and after Cyberball, children in both studies completed stories about peer-scenarios. For Study 1, 36 typically developing 5-year-olds were randomly assigned to regular exclusion (for no apparent reason) or accidental exclusion (due to an alleged computer malfunction). Compared to accidental exclusion, regular exclusion led children to portray story-characters more strongly as intentional agents (intentionality), with use of more mental state language (MSL), and more between-character affiliation in post-Cyberball stories. For Study 2, 20 clinically referred 4 to 8-year-olds with AD and 15 age- and gender-matched non-anxious controls completed stories before and after regular exclusion. While we replicated the post regular-exclusion increase of intentional and MSL portrayals of story-characters among non-anxious controls, anxious children exhibited a decline on both dimensions after regular exclusion. We conclude that exclusion typically induces young children to mentalize, enabling more effective reconnection with others. However, excessive anxiety may impair controlled mentalizing, which may, in turn, hamper effective reconnection with others after exclusion.

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Due to the high risk of infection during the COVID-19 pandemic, direct contact between patients and their therapists, which is usually considered crucial, became a potential threat. In order to prevent the disruption of psychotherapeutic treatment, many psychotherapists switched to different forms of synchronous remote video or telephone communication. However, the implementation of remote treatment was quite abrupt and led many therapists to question how the therapeutic process might continue using this technology-based communication, especially in the context of children and adolescents. Accordingly, the aim of the study was to explore psychodynamic child and adolescent psychotherapists and adolescent patients about their experiences with a remote setting. In Germany, we interviewed 24 psychodynamic child and youth therapists and 11 patients, aged 15-23 years. The qualitative analysis resulted in four themes: during remote treatment therapists and adolescent patients primarily experienced altered conditions of (a) time and space, (b) closeness and distance, (c) corporeality and body awareness, and (d) transitions. We discuss here the potentials and limitations of remote therapy with adolescents and young adults, while especially considering a developmental and adolescent theoretical perspective.