Examination of relation between theory of mind and attachment types in four to six year old children who live in different sociocultural-economic contexts

This study aims at investigating 4-6 year-old children from different socio-cultural and economic contexts in terms of theory of mind and attachment types. This is a causal-comparative study with a developmental-cross sectional design. The sample of the study was based on children living in villages in the central districts of Adana (Çukurova, Sarıçam, Seyhan ve Yüreğir), children from five different cities (Adana, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, Mersin) staying in an institution governed by the Ministry of Family and Social Policies General Directorate of Children Services and children of seasonal agricultural workers working in farms around Adana. Out of 38 villages, governed by four central districts, 10 villages were chosen through simple random sampling, one of random sampling methods. To determine on the children from the villages, purposeful stratified sampling method, one of selective sampling method, was followed. 70 children (39 girls and 31 boys) participated in the study. As for the children staying in the institution, purposeful stratified sampling method, one of selective sampling methods was used. 63 children (28 girls; 35 boys) were taken into the sample from five cities. To determine the children of seasonal agricultural workers working in farms around Adana, purposeful-stratified sampling, one of selective sampling methods, was used. 71 children (37 girls; 34 boys) living in 12 different tent areas participated in the study. In this study, demographic information form, false belief tests and attachment types story completion tests were used as data collection tools. Each child was administered four different false belief tests: (1) change in location (2) appearance-reality (3) unexpected contents (4) misleading picture. In order to investigate the children's attachment type to their parents, story completion tests were used. They were (1) accidental juice spill (2) monster in the bedroom (3) knee hurting (4) leaving (5) reunion. As for the analysis of the data, frequency, percentages, mean (demographic info), two way MANOVA and binary logistic regression techniques were used. The results of the study showed that there was a developmental progress between the children living in villages and the children living in an institution with respect to age variable in their false belief test cognitive scores about themselves and about others. However; no progress was observed in the children of seasonal agricultural workers in terms of false belief tests cognitive scores about themselves and about others. A regression was seen in the 6 year-old group. As for the results of attachment to parents type and socio-cultural and economic contexts variables, a significant difference was found in terms of false belief test cognitive scores about themselves and about others according to socio-cultural and economic contexts where they lived. This difference was in favor of the children living in villages. Also, in this study, it was found that the socio-economic cultural contexts where the children lived was an predictor of attachment to parents type. The results of the study were evaluated in the light of cultural main concepts of Cultural Historical Activity Theory