Theory of Mind Development in School-Aged Left-Behind Children in Rural China

Abstract

The current study aimed to investigate differences in theory of mind between left-behind children and non-left-behind children in rural China and to examine the potential protective role of general reasoning ability in left-behind children’s theory of mind. Participants included 213 children aged 7.10–13.67 years (111 boys and 102 girls, M = 10.51 years, SD = 1.33), 101 of whom were left behind in rural areas by one or both migrating parents for at least 6 months. The Strange Stories task, a second-order false belief task, and a faux pas task were used to measure children’s theory of mind, and Sessions B and C in Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices were used to test children’s general reasoning ability. The results showed that left-behind children scored lower on both the faux pas task and Strange Stories task. Additionally, on second-order false belief understanding, left-behind boys performed worse than non-left-behind boys, while left-behind girls scored higher than non-left behind girls. Moreover, children’s general reasoning ability moderated the relationship between parental migrant status and children’s faux pas understanding: For children with high levels of general reasoning ability, left-behind children performed similarly to non-left-behind children, while for children with low levels of general reasoning ability, left-behind children scored lower than non-left-behind children, indicating that general reasoning ability buffered the negative effect of being left behind on children’s theory of mind development. The implications of these findings for training directed at left-behind children are discussed.

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“…Left-behind children refer to minors who are left in rural areas under the guardianship of grandparents, relatives, or neighbors because of the long-term migrant work of both parents or one party ( Liang et al, 2018 ; Liu et al, 2018 ; Gao et al, 2019 ). In addition, left-behind children are mainly the product of the urban–rural dual structure, extensively existing in various developing countries (e.g., China; Sun et al, 2015 ; Shao et al, 2018 ; Qin et al, 2022 ).…”

Characteristics and outcomes of children with dissociative (conversion) disorders in western China: a retrospective study

“…In addition, nearly half of our patients being left-behind children and their migrating parents have limited communication with their children, often discussing only their children’s learning situations rather than their emotional state or peer interaction. These disadvantages increase their children’s anxiety about learning and have a negative effect the left-behind child’s emotional development, self-awareness, mental health, and social behaviors [ 2 , 36 ].…”

“…In addition, nearly half of our patients being left-behind children and their migrating parents have limited communication with their children, often discussing only their children's learning situations rather than their emotional state or peer interaction. These [2,36]. Motor symptoms and non-epileptic seizures are the most common symptoms in children with dissociative disorders, and multiple conversion symptoms are the norm [4,14].…”

Left-behind experience and language proficiency predict narrative abilities in the home language of Kam-speaking minority children in China

“…Ding et al (2021) reported that left-behind children aged 4-6 staying with one parent scored higher in receptive vocabulary than their peers who stayed with grandparents. Similarly, Liu et al (2018) reported that the development of theory of mind in schoolaged left-behind children was slower than the non-left-behind children. Overall, left-behind children, especially whose parents were both absent, scored lower in these cognitive and language tasks.…”