Abstract

ABARCA MARINKOVIC, Constanza; CAAMANO NAPOLI, Catalina; SAZO ARELLANO, Andrea  and  FARKAS KLEIN, Chamarrita. Relationship between Internal Working Models and Maternal Educational Level, with the Theory of Mind of Chilean Children Aged 3 and 4: Mediating Role of Maternal Mentalizing Language. Act.Colom.Psicol. [online]. 2023, vol.26, n.1, pp.166-187.  Epub Feb 19, 2023. ISSN 0123-9155.  https://doi.org/10.14718/acp.2023.26.1.11.

The theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to recognize one's own mental states and infer them in others, fundamental in socio-emotional/cognitive development in preschoolers. This study sought to describe the ToM of 3- and 4-year-old Chilean children, to analyze the differences in their development according to age, and the mediating role of maternal mentalizing language (ML) considering the sex of the children, the internal working models (IWM) and maternal educational level. The sample considered 110 children with their mothers. A sociodemographic questionnaire, tests to evaluate the ToM, the ML and the IWM of the mothers were applied. 50.9% of the children were in quintile 1 of the ToM and none managed to reach the fifth. The ToM skills with a higher level of achievement were differentiating between pretending and reality (60.0%) and differentiating one's own visual perspective and another's (50.9%). 59.1 % of the children did not manage to infer wishes through the gaze, 83.6% did not achieve the ability to access knowledge, and 100% did not achieve the false belief. The results show significant differences between children of different age ranges in the development of ToM, suggesting a growing difficulty in acquiring their skills. In addition, a higher ML in mothers was related to a greater development of ToM in children, with a mediating role in the influence of IWM and maternal educational level on ToM.

Keywords : Theory of mind; preschoolers; maternal mentalizing language; internal working models; maternal educational level.

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