Social competence with peers and theory of mind among Chinese preschool children

Abstract

The current study investigated the link between social competence with peers (SCWP) and theory of mind (ToM) skills among Chinese preschool children. Using a sample of 363 Chinese children aged 3–5 (Mage = 4.54 years, SD = 0.84, 183 boys), this cross-sectional study demonstrates that children's SCWP, as reported by teachers, was significantly related to their ToM. Notably, this link was found to be significant even after controlling for children's age, sex, sibling presence or absence, parental education level, family possessions, family size and language skills. The current research provides empirical evidence for the association between SCWP and social understanding. Furthermore, beyond links with scores on the false-belief tests used in most past studies, the current result showed a clear independent link between teachers' ratings of social competence and the total score on a reliable developmentally sequenced ToM scale.