AI Article Synopsis

  • Social interactions between parents and children are crucial for developing a child's theory of mind, which is their ability to understand others' thoughts and feelings.
  • The study observed 250 mothers and their 3.5-year-old twins to examine the impact of maternal sensitivity and the home environment (clutter and crowding) on this development.
  • Results indicated that maternal sensitivity positively influenced children's theory of mind only in homes with low levels of clutter and crowding, highlighting how the home environment can affect parent-child interactions.

Article Abstract

Social interactions between parents and children are important for developing theory of mind, but these may be disrupted by aspects of the proximal home environment. The current study observed maternal sensitivity and its associations with child theory of mind and the housing environment (index by clutter and crowding) in a sample of mothers and their 3.5-year-old twins (N = 250 children). Maternal sensitivity and housing environment were measured from experimenter report and child theory of mind was measured through behavioural tasks. Results show that the association between maternal sensitivity and child theory of mind was moderated by the housing environment, where the positive associations between maternal sensitivity and child theory of mind were only observed at lower levels of clutter and crowding in the housing environment. Additional contextual variables and processes are discussed.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.12406DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

theory mind
24
maternal sensitivity
20
child theory
20
housing environment
16
clutter crowding
12
sensitivity child
12
associations maternal
8
theory
6
mind
6
maternal
5

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!