Patience Is a Virtue: Theory of Mind Longitudinally Predicts Children’s Delay during School Transition

ABSTRACT

Four- to seven-year-old children participated in a battery of tasks assessing their theory of mind, conflict inhibition, and delay at time 1, and theory of mind and delay one year later at time 2. Cross-lagged analysis revealed that earlier theory of mind predicted later delay after controlling for earlier conflict inhibition and theory of mind, child age, and family socioeconomic status. The findings highlighted the dynamic nature of the association between theory of mind and delay during the school transition years in its strength and direction, and the increasing specificity in the structure of executive function with age.

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Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Hong Kong Research Grants Council’s General Research Fund [#18612415] awarded to the first author.