Biased Mentalizing in Children Aged Seven to 11: Latent Class Confirmation of Response Styles to Social Scenarios and Associations with Psychopathology

Authors: Sharp, Carla; Croudace, Tim J.; Goodyer, Ian M.

Source: Social Development, Volume 16, Number 1, February 2007 , pp. 181-202(22)

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Abstract:

A new approach to the measurement of mentalizing is introduced. Instead of measuring the presence or absence of mentalizing capacity, the current study aimed at developing a mentalizing task that focuses on investigating biases in mentalizing through the use of ambiguous peer-related social scenarios. The response consistency of 659 children was investigated in a community sample of children aged seven to 11. Confirmatory latent class analysis allocated children to three groups on the basis of their responses: an overly positive style (OP), a rational/neutral style (R) or an overly negative style (ON). Children classed as OP showed a greater likelihood of being above cut-off on a population screen for externalizing disorder. Over a two-year follow-up period, the children who were classified as R were most likely to remain so whereas the OP and ON children were found to change group. The results are discussed in the context of social-cognitive research in this age group. Further studies should examine the external validity of the mentalizing task because the results reported here concern only internal construct validity.

Keywords: mentalizing; externalizing disorder; social cognition; latent class analysis

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00378.x

Affiliations: 1: Developmental Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Publication date: 2007-02-01