A Study On The Influence Of Mothers’ Cultural Values And Parenting Styles On The Development Of Preschool Children’s Theory Of Mind In The Context Of Social Change

Theory of mind,the ability of individuals to understand their own and others’ mental states(thoughts,beliefs,desires),etc.,and to be able to predict and explain others’ behavior based on them,is an important element in children’s social development.Cross-cultural studies have shown that children’s psychological theory development is influenced by the cultural values of the context in which they grow up and by their parents’ parenting concepts and practices.Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up,the rapid economic growth,continued globalization,and rapid advances in technology have triggered changes in Chinese people’s cultural values.Along with the reform and opening up,individualistic values and ideologies originating from the West were gradually accepted by many Chinese people,which in turn reshaped Chinese parents’ parenting goals,parenting styles,and child-rearing practices.In addition,ecosystem theory suggests that distal macro-systems(e.g.,cultural contexts,laws and policies),through their effects on proximal ecosystems(e.g.,families and schools),indirectly influence the developing individual.Cultural values,as an intrinsic factor,not only influence mothers’ socialization goals and parenting practices,but also influence mothers’ parenting style choices,which in turn may influence preschool children’s psychological theory development.Therefore,this dissertation intends to explore the influence of mothers’ cultural values and parenting styles on the development of preschool children’s theory of mind,as well as to examine the timing of the acquisition of preschool children’s theory of mind and the developmental sequence of each psychological theory task after social change.In this study,294 preschool children(147 girls,M age = 4.45 years,SD = 0.86;147 boys,M age = 4.51 years,SD = 0.86)and their mothers were randomly recruited as study subjects.The Children’s Psychological theory of mind Development ScaleChinese Version was used to measure children’s psychological theory development level,and the vocabulary subscales of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised and the China-Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children were used to measure children’s receptive language skills and expressive language skills.In addition,the Cultural Values Scale and the Parenting Behavior Questionnaire were used to measure mothers’ cultural values and parenting styles.The results found that:(1)Chinese mothers held a positive attitude towards both individualism and collectivism,and they preferred the authoritative style to the authoritarian style.(2)Children’s total score on the theory of mind scale was positively predicted by maternal individualism and can be negatively predicted by maternal authoritarian parenting.(3)Chinese children fitted the Western,individualist theory of mind acquisition pattern well,but not the traditional,collectivist pattern.The study shows that social changes over the past 40 years of reform and opening up have influenced the social cognitive development of preschool children in China by affecting mothers’ cultural values and parenting styles,which in turn affect the social cognitive development of preschool children.This study confirms that macroscopic cultural values,and microscopic maternal parenting styles synergistically influence the development of preschool children’s theory of mind.Finally,the study proposes three educational recommendations: cultivating independence and realising personal values in a group;scientific parenting and building an environment of equal parent-child dialogue;and valuing psychological theory development and creating an appropriate family environment.