Narrative coherence and mentalizing complexity are associated in fictive storytelling and autobiographical memories in typically developing children and adolescents

Abstract

Different lines of evidence indicate that the ability to communicate narratives coherently is related to children's social-emotional development. However, it is unknown whether narrative coherence is genre-specific or generalizes across autobiographical memories and fictive stories, and if autobiographical and fictive narratives show different or similar associations with mentalizing language, cognitive functions, social and daily functioning. Addressing these questions may provide important clues about the development of narrative communication skills in children and adolescents. We assessed 86 typically developing children and adolescents aged 7–14, examining narrative coherence and mentalizing complexity in six autobiographical memories and five fictional stories, alongside intellectual functioning and parent and teacher reports on social and adaptive functioning. Results showed that the measures on narrative coherence and mentalizing complexity, respectively, were associated across autobiographical memories and fictional stories. Moreover, narrative coherence and mentalizing complexity was related to each other on both fictive and autobiographical stories. Higher narrative coherence and mentalizing complexity on autobiographical memories were specifically related to better social-emotional reciprocity reported by teachers, who likely have more opportunities than parents to observe the child’s daily interaction with peers. Our findings suggest that narrative coherence and mentalizing language in school-aged children generalize across genres. Being able to communicate personal narratives coherently with use of mentalizing language appears to be important for the social-emotional interplay of children and adolescents.