Shaping the mind: Mothers' mental state talk and children's theory of mind abilities in a cultural context

Theory of mind is a fundamental ability that enables individuals to understand their own and others' mental states and how these states influence behavior. One important environmental factor affecting the development of this ability is known to be the mental state talk parents use in interactions with their children. The aim of the present study is to measure the degree to which mothers in Turkey - a society that blends the collectivist characteristics of Eastern cultures with the individualist characteristics of Western cultures - endorse cultural values, and to examine the relationships between these values, mothers' mental state talk, demographic variables, and children's theory of mind abilities. To this end, a quantitative, cross-sectional, and correlational design was employed with 112 children aged between 36 and 64 months (nmale = 53) and their mothers. Mothers' mental state talk was measured through book-reading and free-play activities, and coded in terms of frequency, type, and referent. Cultural values were measured using the Individualism-Collectivism Scale and the Autonomous-Related Self Scale. Children's theory of mind abilities were assessed using the knowledge access, first-order content false belief, and belief-based emotion attribution tasks. Relationships between variables were analyzed using Pearson correlation analysis. Although direct associations between mental state talk and cultural values were limited, significant relationships emerged between these values and demographic variables such as socioeconomic status and family structure. Higher socioeconomic status and nuclear family structure were associated with more frequent use of cognition terms, while valuing personal uniqueness was linked to the frequency of emotion terms. Furthermore, the use of desire terms was negatively related to children's age. However, the finding that some individualistic values were negatively associated with theory of mind performance suggests that the influence of cultural values on theory of mind development may not always occur in the expected direction, regarless of the context. The present study sheds light on the relationships among cultural values, demographic characteristics, mental state talk, and children's theory of mind development in the Turkish context. Keywords: Culture, mental state talk, theory of mind, individualism, collectivism