Contributions of children's theory of mind, inhibitory control and social competence to school adjustment

Much of the developmental literature on children's theory of mind, or their understanding of internal mental states, has been focused on understanding the timing and developmental trajectory of these abilities. However, identifying potential outcomes of theory of mind development can contextualize its importance. Children's adjustment to kindergarten appears to have lasting influence on later school success and has been proposed to be related to earlier theory of mind. This study investigated two aspects of children's theory of mind: understanding of beliefs and understanding of emotions. The social competence, belief and emotion understanding, and inhibitory control of 201 children were measured at age 54 months and again at age 72 months. Also at 72 months, children's adjustment to kindergarten was measured. Using structural equation models and regression analyses, this longitudinal study tested the contributions of children's early understanding of emotions and beliefs to their adjustment to kindergarten, with social competence tested as a possible mediator. Furthermore, inhibitory control has been found to relate to belief understanding and is important in adjusting to the demands of the classroom. Direct relations between inhibitory control with school adjustment, belief, understanding, and emotion understanding were included in the analyses. As hypothesized, early belief understanding was related indirectly to later school adjustment, mediated by social competence in the structural equation model and regression analyses. These relations did not replicate when children's belief and emotion understanding and inhibitory control at 72 months, and social competence at 54 months were included. Children's early emotion understanding was not related to later school adjustment in any of the structural equation models or regression analyses. Interestingly, specific aspects of children's school adjustment related differently to belief understanding than to emotion understanding in bivariate correlations; children's emotion understanding was related to more positive sentiments about school whereas children's belief understanding related to increased classroom participation. In addition to the main research question, emotion understanding was found to positively relate concurrently and longitudinally to inhibitory control. This finding suggests more research is warranted to investigate these specific relations. Also, children's inhibitory control was related reciprocally across time to belief understanding.