Household clutter and crowding constrain associations between maternal sensitivity and child theory of mind

Abstract

Theory of mind (ToM) is defined as the ability to understand the beliefs, desires and knowledge of the self and others (Wellman, 1990). This mentalizing ability is critical for the development of healthy social cognition and develops rapidly between the ages of 3 and 5 years (Wellman et al., 2001), and is rooted in both cognitive and social influences. With regards to the latter, individual differences in ToM abilities

Rethinking household size and children’s language environment.

“…However, it did not come out significant in the path model with only non-Hispanic families. This is interesting because previous work on HHD in non-Hispanic families with younger children did reveal a significant negative correlation with child language abilities (Essen et al, 1978; Evans et al, 1999, 2010; Goduka et al, 1992; Marsh et al, 2019; Maxwell, 1996; McCormick et al, 2022; Murray, 1974; San Kyaw et al, 2020; Wachs & Gruen, 1982). While our data trend in that direction, the effect is not significant in our non-Hispanic group.…”

“…Another important contribution of this article is the inclusion of older children. Most of the work in this area includes younger children, typically 2–4 years of age (Evans et al, 1999; Ferjan Ramírez et al, 2019; McCormick et al, 2022; San Kyaw et al, 2020; Soderstrom et al, 2018). Our finding shows that household makeup continues to relate to children’s language abilities even into the school years when much of their time is spent in the classroom and the home, theoretically, has less of a day-to-day impact on their development.…”

“…Multiple studies note that living in dense households is related to poor language (primarily vocabulary) and cognitive outcomes in young children (Essen et al, 1978;Evans et al, 1999Evans et al, , 2010Goduka et al, 1992;Marsh et al, 2019;Maxwell, 1996;McCormick et al, 2022;Murray, 1974;San Kyaw et al, 2020;Wachs & Gruen, 1982). This relation is attributed to lowered maternal responsivity to an individual child when there are more people in the home.…”