Christopher Osterhaus

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    • Scientific reasoning
    • Dealing with evidence
    • Social cognition
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Theory of Mind and loneliness in kindergarten and elementary school

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Theory of Mind and loneliness in kindergarten and elementary school

costerhaus Juni 21, 2020

Koerber, S., & Osterhaus, C. (2020). Some but not all aspects of (advanced) Theory of Mind predict loneliness. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 38, 144–148. doi:10.1111/bjdp.12302

Children’s (advanced) theory of mind (AToM) has been related to numerous real-worldsocial consequences, including regarding their feelings of loneliness. A recent study hasshown that AToM does not rely on a single underlying ability, instead involving threedistinct factors: social reasoning, reasoning about ambiguity, and recognizing transgres-sions of social norms. The present study of 229 5- to 8-year-olds investigated whether andhow these three aspects of AToM cognition are related to children’s feelings of lonelinesswhile controlling for the influence of self-esteem. Our results show that social reasoning isthe only AToM factor that is related to children’s loneliness, and it is independent fromchildren’s self-esteem. Our findings have consequences for the conceptualization ofAToM and our understanding of children’s feelings of loneliness and their ability to form friendships.

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About

Christopher Osterhaus is a postdoctoral research associate in psychology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.

My research explores how children come to understand complex social situations and how they acquire scientific reasoning skills.

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