The Role of Parental Involvement, Parental Empathy, andEmotional Expressiveness in the Development of the Theory of Mind (ToM) Among Children

Abstract

The present study sought to investigate the influence of parental characteristics on the development of Theory of Mind (ToM) in preschool children (3-8 years). The research encompassed two distinct phases. The initial phase involved a pre-testing procedure designed to assess the parents' comprehension of the language utilized in the measurement instruments employed in the study. Subsequently, the main study, constituting the second phase, was conducted. This primary investigation aimed to explore the contributions of Parental Involvement, Parental Empathy, and Emotion Expressiveness to the development of Theory of Mind in children. Additionally, vatious demographic variables such as monthly family income, mother's age, and father's age were examined as potential moderators in several subordinate studies. The main study proceeded with a cross-sectional survey of 151 parents (M= L.23 , SD= .42). The parents were approached through the diaries of the preschoolers. After getting consent from the parents, 151 preschool children (M= 1.44, SD=.49) were assessed on the Theory of Mind tasks. Measures used in the study included Parental Involvement Scale (PIS) (Georgiou, 2007), Inter-personal reactivity index (Davis, 1980), a two items scale Parenting that encourages children to take the perspective of others (Farrant, 2011), Self-Expressiveness in the Family Questionnaire (SEFQ) (Mizokawa, 2013), and Theory of mind scale (Wellman, 2004). The main findings of the study revealed that parental involvement, parental empathy, and positive emotion expressiveness positively predict the development of Theory of Mind whereas negation emotion expressiveness negatively predict the development of Theory of Mind among preschool children. FUt1hennore, it revealed significant differences in family system, monthly income, number of siblings, and number of adults in the family These findings hold the potential to infotm the practices and intervention strategies of developmental and child psychologists, pat1icularly in their efforts to provide psychoeducation to parents. Importantly, parents themselves can derive substantial benefits from these findings, enabling them to recognize the significance of Theory of Mind in influencing diverse life outcomes for their children, and equipping them with techniques and parenting styles conducive to fosteting this developmental aspect.