Introduction Although much is known about theory of mind (ToM) development during childhood, data on how these skills develop in adolescence is scarce. This cavity is due in part to the limited knowledge about measures of advanced theory of mind. Methods The study examined the relation among six common story‐based tasks designed to measure advanced ToM in two age groups of Polish adolescents: early (13‐year‐olds; 78 girls) and late (16‐year‐olds; 143 girls) adolescents. Results Factor models for individual tasks were constructed, followed by an examination of the underlying structure that explained the variability of factor scores. Only in half of the tasks, the results revealed an age‐related increase in advanced ToM. Contrary to expectation, results showed a lack of correlations among story‐based advanced ToM tasks in the two adolescent groups. Conclusions The results suggest a lack of coherence among advanced story‐based ToM tasks and the need for further development of reliable and valid advanced ToM measures which are sensitive enough to show increasingly complex social reasoning abilities in adolescence.

A growing body of research on theory of mind (ToM) highlights its significance for childhood social outcomes. Extending the developmental scope of this work, the current study investigated links between advanced ToM abilities and peer attachment in adolescence. Polish adolescents (16 to 18 years old; N = 302; 57.6% girls) completed two advanced ToM measures and reported on their peer attachment. With the effects of age and language controlled, girls scored higher than boys for both advanced ToM and peer attachment. However, the association between these measures was only significant in boys. These results are discussed in terms of theory and research on gender-specific approaches to social cognitive development in adolescence.

Theoretical models suggest a relation between children's attachment and their theory of mind (ToM), but existing empirical studies are inconclusive with respect to the existence and magnitude of this association. We present the first meta‐analytic review of available studies on the attachment‐ToM association during childhood. Fifteen research on attachment‐ToM links among typically developed children aged 2 to 6 were reviewed and 12 studies that report correlations between attachment and ToM (N = 629) were included in a quantitative meta‐analysis. Meta‐analytic results showed that the higher attachment security, the better ToM skills; the combined effect size for this association was moderate, r = .30. These findings are discussed in‐depth and future research directions are proposed.

The main aim of the study was to check: (a) attachment-related differences in alexithymia and (b) the mediating role of mind-mindedness in attachment-alexithymia relationship. Method: Attachment (PAM; Berry et al., 2007), alexithymia (TAS-20; Bagby, Taylor, & Parker, 1994) and mind-mindedness (“describe your friend” method; Meins et al, 2008) were measured in the sample of 128 Polish undergraduates. Results: Positive associations were seen between attachment anxiety and overall alexithymia scores and difficulty identifying emotions. Attachment avoidance was positively associated with overall alexithymia score, difficulty describing feelings and externally oriented thinking. Mind-mindedness was not related to neither attachment or alexithymia. Conclusion: There are attachment-related differences in alexithymia, but mind-mindedness seems not to mediate attachment-alexithymia relationship.