Mental state talk and mentalization in middle childhood

摘要

This study aims at investigating the use of mental state terms and markers of uncertainty in a sample of 138 participants of different age levels (8, 9, 10 and 12 years). Furthermore, the relationship between the use of mental state terms and other variables (verbal IQ and gender) has been considered. The Child Attachment Interview was used to assess mental state language in an autobiographical narrative. Verbal IQ was evaluated by administering the verbal scale of the WISC-III. Results indicate an increase of mental state lexicon from 8 to 10 years, in particular as regards lexical diversity in different categories such as emotional terms and cognitive terms. Furthermore, twelve-year-old children showed a significantly higher production of markers of uncertainty. A developmental change in the composition of mental state language was also found, with an increase in the use of cognitive terms and a concurrent decrease in the production of emotional terms. Mental state language was weakly correlated with verbal IQ. The differences between males and females in the use of mental state terms were limited to few categories and indicate a slightly higher production in girls.