The role of social cognition in mental health trajectories from childhood to adolescence

Tsomokos, D. and Flouri, E. (2023) The role of social cognition in mental health trajectories from childhood to adolescence. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, (doi: 10.1007/s00787-023-02187-8) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

We investigated the association between an aspect of Theory of Mind in childhood, false-belief understanding, and trajectories of internalising (emotional and peer) and externalising (conduct and hyperactivity) problems in childhood and adolescence. The sample was 8408 children from the UK’s Millennium Cohort Study, followed at ages 5, 7, 11, 14, and 17 years. Social cognitive abilities were measured at 5 and 7 years through a vignette version of the Sally–Anne task administered by an unfamiliar assessor in a socially demanding dyadic interaction. Internalising and externalising problems were measured via the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire at 7–17 years. Using latent growth modelling, and after controlling for sex, ethnicity, maternal education, verbal ability, and time-varying family income, we found that superior social cognitive abilities predicted a decrease in emotional problems over time. In sex-stratified analyses, they predicted decreasing conduct problem trajectories in females and lower levels of conduct problems at baseline in males.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This study is the work of the authors. DIT was partially funded by Alphablocks Nursery School Ltd.
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: UNSPECIFIED
• Authors: Tsomokos, D., and Flouri, E.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience
• Journal Name: European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Publisher: Springer
• ISSN: 1018-8827
• ISSN (Online): 1435-165X
• Published Online: 31 March 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2023
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License