Higher Order Theory of Mind and Social Competence in School Age Children

Theory of mind (TOM), or the ability to make inferences about the mental states of other people is thought to be the proximate mechanism underlying human's ability to function in complex collaborative social networks. Here we present a set of stories and questions for investigating higher order theory of mind functioning in school age children, and also a scale for obtaining ratings of children's social competence. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to assess TOM in adolescents and to determine whether individual differences in this mentalizing ability relate to social competence. It was hypothesized that adolescent's ability to understand thoughts and emotions in others would be associated with their social competence. 80 adolescent (40 class 11th students and 40 class 9th students; mean age 16-14) completed peer social competence ratings and participated in a social understanding (TOM) interview. Parent's ratings of the participants' social competence were also collected. Based on composite TOM scores, results indicated positive associations between TOM and peer and parents ratings of social interaction skills.