The Relationship Between Theory of Mind and Social Skills: The Mediated Role of Empathy and Emotion Regulation in Primary School Children
Subject Areas :
Mina Sangnour pour
1
*
,
zeynab khanjani
2
,
تورج هاشمی
3
1 - Psychology department- The faculty of education and psychology - The university of Tabriz - Tabriz - Iran
2 - Professor of psychology
3 - دانشگاه تبریز
Keywords: emotion regulation, empathy, social skills, theory of mind,
Abstract :
The present study aimed to determine the relationship between theory of mind and social skills mediated by empathy and emotion regulation in primary school children. The study was conducted with a correlational method. The study population was girls in the sixth grade of primary school in Tabriz in 2022. Using random multistage cluster method 375 students were selected and completed Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters (Matson,1983), Theory of Mind Test (Steerneman, 1994), Empathy Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (Overgaauw, Rieffe, Broekhof, Crone & Güroğlu, 2017) and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Shield & Cicchetti, 1997). Data were an- alyzed using structural equation modeling. Results showed that there was no significant relationship between theory of mind and social skills. There was a positive relationship between theory of mind and empathy and emotion regulation as well as between empathy and emotion regulation with social skills. Empathy and emotion regulation could significantly mediate the relationship between theory of mind and social skills. Hence, the research indicates that social skills can be improved by improving theory of mind and simultaneously improving empathy and emotion regulation Keywords: emotion regulation, empathy, social skills, theory of mind
Agustin, L., Huepe, D., Gempp, R., Gutiérrez, V., Rivera-Rei, A., & Toledo, M. (2013). Empathy, sex and fluid intelligence as predictors of theory of mind. Personality and Individual Differences, 54(5), 616-621.
Amin Yazdi, A. (2007). Social cognition and language. Journal of Mashhad Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences, 159(4), 115-134. [In Persian].
Asher, S. R., & Renshaw, P. D. (1981). Children without friends: Social knowledge and social skill training. In S. R. Asher & J. M. Gottman (Eds.), The development of children’s friendships (pp. 273–296). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bahadri Jahormi, S., Mehdi Pourpilehroud, Z., Behrouz Sarcheshmeh, S., Mahmoudi, F., & Azazi Bojunordi, A. (2016). The effect of social behavior training on improving self-esteem and social skills of slow-paced teenagers. Empowering Exceptional Children, 8(3), 55-65. [In Persian].
Balconi, M., & Canavesio, Y. (2014). Is empathy necessary to comprehend the emotional faces? The empathic effect on attentional mechanisms (eye movements), cortical correlates (N200 event-related potentials) and facial behavior (electromyography) in face processing. Cognition and Emotion, 30(2), 210-241.
Baron-Cohen, S., & Wheelwright, S. (2004). The empathy guotient: An investigation of adults with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism, and normal sex differences. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34(2), 163-175.
Begeer, S., Gevers, C., Clifford, P., Verhoeve, M., Kat, K., & Hoddenbach, E. et al. (2011). Theory of mind training in children with autism: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41(8), 997- 1006.
Bradberry, T., & Greaves, J. (2009). Emotional intelligence. Translated by M. Ganji. Tehran: Savalane Pub.
Burns, J. A. (2002). Obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention. Doctoral thesis, Graduate Callage, University of Nebraska.
Candida, P. (2014). Theory of mind understanding and empathic behavior in children with autism spectrum disorders. International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience, 39,16-21.
Cantin, R. H., Gnaedinger, E. K., Gallaway, K. C., Hesson-McInnis, M. S., & Hund, A. M. (2016). Executive functioning predicts reading, mathematics, and theory of mind during the elementary years. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 146, 66-78.
Carpendale, J., & Lewis, C. (2006). How children develop social understanding. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Cicchetti, D., Ackerman, B. P., & Izard, C. E. (1995). Emotions and Emotion regulation in developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 7(1), 1-10.
Collishaw, S., Picklies, A., Masser, J., Ritter, M., Shearer, C., & Maughan, B. (2007). Resilience to adult psychopathology following childhood maltreatment: Evidence from a community sample. Child Abuse & Neglect, 31(3), 211-229.
Cooper, C. L., Phillips, L. H., Johnston, M., Whyte, M. & MacLeod, M. J. (2015). The role of emotion regulation on social participation following stroke. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 54 (2), 181-99.
Dadds, M. R., Hunter, K., Howes, D., Frost, A. J. Vassallo, S. Bunn, P., Marz, S. E., & Masry, Y. (2008). Measurement of empathy in children using parental ratings. Child psychiatry and human development, 39(2), 111-122.
Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Schaller, M., Carlo, G., & Miller, P. A. (1991). The relations of parental characteristics and practices to children’s vicarious emotional responding. Child Development, 62, 1393–1408.
English, T., John, O., Srivastava, S., & Gross, J. (2012). Emotion Regulation and Peer-Rated Social Functioning: A Four-Year Longitudinal Study. Journal of Research in Personality, 46 (6), 780–784.
Fathi, S., Fakoury, H., & Bashiri Guivi, H. (2014). Review of theory of mind and social skills of educable mentally-retarded boys. International Journal of Social Science (IJSS), 4(3), 35-40.
Fernandez, Y. M. & Marshall, W. (2003). Victim empathy, social self-esteem and psychopathy in rapists. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, 15, 11-26.
Garfield, J. L., Peterson, C. C., & Perry, T. (2001). Social Cognition, Language Acquisition and the Development of the Theory of Mind. Mind & Language,16(5), 494-541.
Ghaffari, S., Banijamali, H., Ahadi, G., Ahghar, G. (2011). The investigation of the effectiveness of social skill training in theory of mind improvement in aggressive students and the assessment of its effective stability. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 30, 1519 – 1525.
Gordon, R. (1986). Folk psychology and simulation. Mind and Language, 1(2), 158-171.
Gorton, A., & Grinckart, E. (2005). The development of a scale to measure empathy in 8-9 years old children. Australian Journal of Education and Developmental Psychology,5, 17-25.
Gratz, K. L. & Gunderson, J. G. (2006). Preliminary data on an acceptance-based emotion regulation group intervention for deliberate self-harm among women with borderline personality disorder. Behavior Therapy, 37, 25–35.
Gutiérrez Sanmartín, M., Escartí Carbonell, A., & Pascual Baños, C. (2011). Relationships among empathy, prosocial behavior, aggressiveness, self-efficacy and pupils’ personal and social responsibility. Psicothema, 23(1), 13-19.
Hashemi, F. (2012). The role of theory of mind and empathy in predicting emotional behavioral problems of students from divorced and normal families. Master's thesis in educational psychology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. [In Persian].
Ismailian, N., Dehghani, M., & Falah, P. (2015). Investigating the psychometric properties of the emotional regulation checklist for children and adolescents. Journal of Clinical Psychology Achievements, 2(1), 15-34. [In Persian].
Jan Bozoregi, M. (2008). Teaching ethics, social behavior and legality to children. Tehran: Arjmand Publications. [In Persian].
Jazaieri, H., Morrison, A. S., Goldin, P. R., & Gross, J. J. (2015). The role of emotion and emotion regulation in social anxiety disorder. Current Psychiatry Reports, 17(1), 1-9.
Keskin, B., & Jones, I. (2011). Theory of mind, material altruism and family context in preschoolers. Journal of Research in Education, 21(1), 126-136.
Khosh-Rosh, S., Khosrowjavid, M., & Hossein Khanzadeh, A. (2014). The effectiveness of emotional regulation training on social acceptance and empathy of dyslexic students. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 5(1), 32-46. [In Persian].
Khosravi Larijani, M., Mohammad Panah Ardakan, A., Wood dealer, A., & Dehghani Ashkazi, A. (2019). Determining the validity and reliability of the persian version of the Child and Adolescent Empathy Questionnaire. Journal of Applied Psychological Research, 4(11), 280-263. [In Persian].
Mashhadhi, A., Hashemi Jozdani, M., & Hashemi Borzabadi, H. (2011). The theory of mind development and its relationship with social skills in children and adolescents with visual impairment. Journal of Developmental Psychology: Iranian Psychologists, 7(27), 219-230. [In Persian].
Matson, J.L., Heinze, A., Helsel, W.J., Kapperman, G., & Rotatori, A.F. (1986). Assessing social behaviors in the visually handicapped: The Matson Evaluation of Social skills with Youngsters (MESSY). Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 15, 78–87.
Matson, J. L., Rotatori, A. F., & Helsel, W. J. (1983). Development of a rating scale to measure social skills in children: The Matson evaluation of social skills with youngsters (MESSY). Behaviour Research Therapy, 21, 335-340.
Miller, S. A. (2016). Parenting and Theory of mind. New York: Oxford University Press.
Mirzai, S.A., Pakdaman, Sh., & Alizadeh, A. (2019). Designing a program to generalize social skills in adolescents with high self-esteem: Application of the cognitive model of social information processing. Journal of Developmental Psychology: Iranian Psychologists, 16(64), 365-378. [In Persian].
Mitsopoulou, E., & Giovazolia, T. (2015). Personality traits, empathy and bullying behavior: A meta-analytic approach. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 21, 61 -72.
Morelli, S. A., Lieberman, M. D., & Zaki, J. (2015). The emerging study of positive empathy. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 9(2), 57-68.
Morton, A. (1980). Frames of mind: Constraints on the common-sense conception of the mental. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Muris, P., Steerneman, P., Meesters, C., Merckelbach, H., Horselenberg, R., Hogen, T., & Dongen, L. (1999). The TOM Test: A new instrument for assessing theory of mind in normal children and children with pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 29(1), 67-80.
Murray, K., Johnston, K., Cunnane, H., Kerr, C., Spain, D., Gillan, N., & Happé, F. (2017). A new test of advanced theory of mind: The “Strange Stories Film Task” captures social processing differences in adults with autism spectrum disorders. Autism Research, 10(6), 1120-1132.
Naderpilehroud, M., Sohrabi, F., & Hossein Thabit, F. (2015). The effectiveness of teaching theory of mind on improving theory of mind and social skills of deaf students. Cognitive Psychology Quarterly, 4(4), 51-60. [In Persian].
Overgaauw, S., Rieffe, C., Broekhof, E., Crone, E. A., & Güroğlu, B. (2017). Assessing empathy across childhood and adolescence: Validation of the Empathy Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (EmQue-CA). Frontiers in Psychology. 8, 870.
Ozonoff, S., Rogers, S. J., & Pennington, B. F. (1991). Asperger’s syndrome: evidence of an empirical distinction from high-functioning autism. Child psychological Psychiatry, 32(7), 1107-1122.
Pedram, A. (2011). Self-confidence and social skills in children, adolescents and adults. Isfahan: Kiarad Publications. [In Persian].
Pouw, L., Rieffe, C., Stockmann, L., & Gadow, K. (2013). The link between emotion regulation, social functioning, and depression in boys with ASD. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 7 (4), 549–556.
Preston, S. D., & Hofelich, A. J. (2012). The Many Faces of Empathy: Parsing Empathic Phenomena through a Proximate, Dynamic-Systems View of Representing the Other in the Self. Emotion Review, 4(1), 24-33.
Proctor, T., & Beail, N. (2007). Empathy and theory of mind in offenders with intellectual disability. Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 32(2), 82-93.
Qumrani, A., Al-Barzi, Sh., & No, M. (2006). Examining the validity and reliability of the theory of mind test in a group of mentally retarded and normal students in Shiraz. Journal of Psychology, 2(10), 181-199. [In Persian].
Resches, M. & Perez-Pereira, M. (2007). Referential communication abilities and theory of mind development in preschool children. Journal of Child Language, 34(1), 21-52.
Rezaei Mirhasari, A., Hassanzadeh, S., Ghbari Bonab, B., & Sheikh Mohammadi, A. (2013). The relationship between theory of mind and empathy in hearing impaired and normal students. Journal of Audiology, 23(5), 51-44. [In Persian].
Shield, A., & Cicchetti, D. (1997). Emotion regulation in school-age children: The development of a new criterion Q-sort scale. Developmental Psychology, 33, 906-916.
Soleimani, A., & Habibi, Y. (2013). The relationship between emotion regulation and resilience with psychological well-being in students. Journal of School Psychology, 3(4), 51-72. [In Persian].
Steerneman, P. (1994). Theory-of-mind screening-schaal [Theory-of-mind screening-scale]. Leuven/Apeldoorn: Garant.
Thompson, R. A. (1994). Emotional regulation: A theme in search for definition. In N. A. Fox. Emotion Regulation: Behavioral and Biological Consideration. Monographs of the Society for Research in child Developments, 59(3), 25-52.
Teodoro, M. L. M., Käppler, K. C., de Lima Rodrigues, J., de Freitas, P. M., & Haase, V. G. (2005). The Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters (MESSY) and its adaptation for Brazilian children and adolescents. Revista Interamericana de Psicología/Interamerican Journal of Psychology, 39(2), 239 -246.
Yousefi, F., & No, M. (2002). Examining the reliability and validity of Matson's social skills scale and comparing the performance of high school girls and boys in this scale. Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities of Shiraz University, 2(18), 147-158. [In Persian].