The psychological self and advanced theory of mind in adolescence

ABSTRACT

A short-term longitudinal study explored the relation between the psychological understanding of self (the psychological self, PS) and other people (advanced theory of mind, aToM) during adolescence. Two hundred and one early and middle adolescents were tested twice (separated by a one-year break) with self- and other-understanding measures. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). Compared to early adolescents, middle adolescents scored higher on PS and aToM and their scores on PS and aToM increased over the course of one year. In both age groups, PS and aToM were positively related, and for early adolescents, the initial level of aToM predicted the growth of PS. The findings are discussed within the context of developmental research.

KEYWORDS:

• Social knowledge
• psychological self
• advanced theory of mind

Acknowledgments

• We want to acknowledge our gratitude to prof. Susan Branje from Utrecht University for her valuable comments on the first draft of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

1. Data file and Mplus syntax files, that were used to conduct all analyses, are available via the ‘Supplemental’ tab on the article’s online page (10.1080/15298868.2018.1538900).

2. We are grateful to the anonymous Reviewer and the Editor for underlining this import point.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Polish National Science Centre under grant: [UMO 2013/10/M/HS6/00544].