Relationship between False Belief, Mental State Language, Metalinguistic Awareness and Social Abilities in School-age Children

The present study examined the concurrent relationships between false belief understanding, mental state language, metalinguistic knowledge, narrative competence and social ability in a sample of 150 school-age children between 8 and 12 years of age. Results revealed significant associations between performance in false belief and metalinguistic tasks. The use of mental state language was negatively correlated with emotional instability and aggressiveness. Finally, both theory of mind and mental state language were positively associated with the number of narrative categories included in a fictional story and the occurrence of subordinate propositions.