Effects Of Parents Use Mental State Terms On Preschoolers’s Lying

Lying is a complex behavior produced by preschoolers when they communicate with others,and its generation and development reflect the development and progress of preschoolers’ social cognitive ability.To study the lying of preschoolers is helpful to grasp its occurrence and development process,to understand the influencing factors of lying,and to guide it correctly,so as to avoid lying turning into problem behavior.Under the background of Chinese language and culture,this study investigated the influence of parents use of mental state terms on preschoolers’ s lying.And explored the mechanism of parents use of mental state terms on preschoolers’ s lying,including the direct influence of parents use of mental state terms on preschoolers’ s lying.And the mediating effect of preschoolers’ s cognitive abilities such as theory of mind and executive function between parents use of terms in mental states and preschoolers’ s lying.A total of 90 preschoolers aged 4-6 and their parents from two kindergartens in Weifang City were selected to participate in the study.The parents use mental state terms was measured by observation method.False belief task,affective labeling test and affective perspective-taking test were used to investigate preschoolers’ s cognitive and affective theory of mind abilities.The inhibitory control of preschoolers was tested by Bear-dragon task and Day-night Stroop task,preschoolers’ s working memory ability was tested by Digital reverse task and Six-box scramble task,Flexible choice task tests cognitive flexibility in preschoolers.Using the "hide and seek" paradigm and the "temptation resistance paradigm" to detect the spontaneous lying of preschoolers,The Peabody Picture vocabulary test was used to test the comprehension vocabulary level of preschoolers.The results showed that maternal use of cognitive clarification terms significantly predicted preschoolers’ lying,cognitive theory of mind plays a partial mediating role between maternal use of cognitive clarification terms and preschoolers’ lying,executive function completely mediates the relationship between maternal use of cognitive clarification terms and preschoolers’ lying,cognitive theory of mind and executive function(inhibitory control,working memory)play a chain mediating role between maternal use of cognitive clarification terms and preschoolers’ lying,affective theory of mind and executive function(inhibitory control)play a chain mediating role between maternal use of cognitive clarification terms and preschoolers’ lying.The parents use of mental state terms,especially parents use of cognitive clarification terms,can help preschoolers improve their cognitive ability,strengthen their understanding of themselves,and make them realize that lying can be a strategy to gain personal benefits in some cases.