Validation of the Tunisian Social Situation Instrument in the General Pediatric Population

Abstract

Background: In order to better understand the deployment of the theory of mind (ToM) in Tunisian neurotypical children, we have developed a new tool of assessment of the ToM called the "Tunisian Social Situations Instrument" (TSSI). We opted for the creation of this test in view of the intercultural differences in the development of social skills. Our purpose was to validate this tool in general pediatric population.Methods: It was a cross-sectional evaluative study that aimed to validate the TSSI in the general pediatric population. We initially conducted a beta test and a pre-validation study before taking the initial version of the TSSI on 123 neurotypical children. Then, we followed the typical validation procedure: appearance validity, content validity, construct validity, and reliability study.Results: Regarding the validity of appearance, the TSSI was comprehensible and adapted to the Tunisian pediatric population. About content validity, the exploratory factor analysis extracted 6 factors that explain 69.3% of the total variance. These factors were respectively social clumsiness types 1 and 2, intention attribution, emotional ToM, epistemic ToM, and simple comprehension questions. The subdomains of social clumsiness (types 1 and 2) and emotional ToM had a Cronbach alpha higher than 0.8. This factor structure as well as the significant inter-correlation between subdomains and the global score were in favor of a good construct validity. The internal consistency study showed good reliability of the final version of the TSSI (alpha of Cronbach at 0,809). Regarding the performance of children at the TSSI, we have noticed a significant association between the global score, age, and verbal intelligence. Conclusion:This work offers valuable insights about ToM and provides clinicians with a reliable tool to assess social clumsiness and emotional ToM in typically developing children.

Assessing the construct validity of a theory of mind battery adapted to Tunisian school-aged children

“…Given the lack of ToM assessment tools for Arabic-speaking populations ( 20 , 30 , 34 ), in this study we adapt an appropriate tool and examine its validity among neurotypical Tunisian children aged 7–12 years. With the approbation of the authors, we adapted the ToM battery developed by Lancelot ( 21 ) in France to the Tunisian cultural context, specifically assessing its construct validity.…”

Validation of the Tunisian Empathy Scale for Children (TESC) in General Population and Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…The goal of this study was to create an empathy assessment tool adapted to the Tunisian context entitled “Tunisian Empathy Scale for Children” (TESC), and to validate it on a general pediatric population and on a clinical population (children with ASD). This work falls within the Tunisian battery of social cognition assessment tools which already includes two validated tests: “Tunisian social situation instrument” ( 13 ) and “Tunisian test for facial emotions recognition” ( 14 ) designed as downloadable applications on Android.…”

Assessment of theory of mind in Tunisian verbal children with autism spectrum disorder

“…To our knowledge, this is the first study aiming to examine this cognitive function among Arabic-speaking verbal children (aged 7–12 years) with ASD, comparing them to neurotypical controls (matched for age and for cognitive abilities), using an innovative and recently validated task: “The Tunisian Social Situations Instrument” (TSSI) ( 31 ). It seems crucial to include research populations from diverse linguistic backgrounds, in order to maximize the possibilities of generalizing the conclusions of previous research.…”

“…It seems crucial to include research populations from diverse linguistic backgrounds, in order to maximize the possibilities of generalizing the conclusions of previous research. Furthermore, our study is the first to use one task in digital form to assess 4 different subdomains of ToM including an assessment of 3 aspects of ToM: cognitive, affective, and advanced ToM (detection of faux pas) ( 31 ). Studying ToM in children with ASD seems crucial for the construction of remediation tools aiming to improve this function and its different subdomains.…”