False-Belief Understanding and Language Ability Mediate the Relationship between Emotion Comprehension and Prosocial Orientation in Preschoolers

Abstract

Emotion comprehension (EC) is known to be a key correlate and predictor of prosociality from early childhood. In the present study, we examined this relationship within the broad theoretical construct of social understanding which includes a number of socio-emotional skills, as well as cognitive and linguistic abilities. Theory of mind, especially false-belief understanding, has been found to be positively correlated with both EC and prosocial orientation. Similarly, language ability is known to play a key role in children’s socio-emotional development. The combined contribution of false-belief understanding and language to explaining the relationship between EC and prosociality has yet to be investigated. Thus, in the current study, we conducted an in-depth exploration of how preschoolers’ false-belief understanding and language ability each contribute to modeling the relationship between children’s comprehension of emotion and their disposition to act prosocially toward others, after controlling for age and gender. Participants were 101 4- to 6-year-old children (54% boys), who were administered measures of language ability, false-belief understanding, EC and prosocial orientation. Multiple mediation analysis of the data suggested that false-belief understanding and language ability jointly and fully mediated the effect of preschoolers’ EC on their prosocial orientation. Analysis of covariates revealed that gender exerted no statistically significant effect, while age had a trivial positive effect. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

The Relation Between Emotion Understanding and Theory of Mind in Children Aged 3 to 8: The Key Role of Language

“…They too found a correlation between understanding of the external causes of emotion and ToM. Similar findings emerged from a study carried out by Ornaghi et al (2016) in the same age range as the participants in Weimer and colleagues’ research. Focusing on how language and false-belief understanding mediate the influence of emotion comprehension on prosocial orientation, the authors reported positive significant correlations between EU and ToM, even when the effects of age and gender had been controlled for.…”

“…The effects of gender have been assessed in some but not all of the studies investigating children’s social cognition. In general, when gender has been controlled for, it has been found to make little (e.g., Kårstad et al, 2015 ) or no contribution (e.g., Pons et al, 2002 , 2004 ; Pons and Harris, 2005 ; Grazzani et al, 2015 ; Ornaghi et al, 2016 ) to explaining variance in EU. In a recent study with a sample of 3- to 8-year-old children, Fidalgo et al (2017) found that EU was unaffected by gender in relation to eight out of the nine components of emotion understanding assessed by the TEC.…”

The development of emotion understanding at the preschool childhood: a psychological perspective

“…Новейшие данные о взаимосвязи понимания эмоций и просоциальной ориентации в дошкольном возрасте, полученные в эмпирическом иссле-довании Вероники Орнаги с коллегами из Миланского университета Бико-кка (V. Ornaghi et al, 2016), позволили выявить такие значимые перемен-ные, опосредующие отношения между пониманием эмоций и просоциаль-ным поведением детей 4-6 лет, как языковая способность и понимание ложных убеждений [88]. Комплексная процедура диагностики включала в себя:…”

“…Во-первых, осознание до-школьниками мыслей, намерений и убеждений других людей позволяет им лучше связывать эмоции и чувства людей с их намерениями и поведением, точно различать трудности собеседника в той или иной ситуации, что в свою очередь может способствовать проявлению эмпатии и просоциаль-ному поведению. Во-вторых, с помощью языка как системы символиче-ской связи дошкольники могут участвовать в социальном взаимодействии, диалоге, воображаемой игре, рассказывании историй и других видах дея-тельности, которые усиливают принятие перспективы, то есть видение си-туации с позиции других людей [88].…”

Effects of Maternal Discourse Style and Content During Memory Talk on Preschoolers’ Prosocial Behavior: Mediating Effects of Preschoolers’ Moral Judgement

“…, (Sales, Fivush, & Peterson, 2003;Van Bergen & Salmon, 2010), , (Ruffman, Slade, Devitt, & Crowe, 2006;Thompson & Winer, 2014), (Wang & Fivush, 2005), (Wang & Fivush, 2005), (Thompson & Winer, 2014) . , Ornaghi, Agliati, & Brazzelli, 2016;Ornaghi, Pepe, & Grazzani, 2016). (Brownell, Svetlova, Anderson, Nichols, & Drummond, 2013;Thompson & Winer, 2014), (Laible & Thompson, 2000).…”