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International Journal of Adolescence
and Youth
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The adolescent mind in school: theory
of mind and self-concept in Canadian
and Polish youth
Sandra Bosacki
a
, Marta Bialecka-Pikul
b
& Marta Szpak
b
a
Faculty of Education, Brock University , St. Catharines , ON ,
Canada
b
Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University , Krakow , Poland
Published online: 14 Jun 2013.
To cite this article: Sandra Bosacki , Marta Bialecka-Pikul & Marta Szpak (2013): The adolescent
mind in school: theory of mind and self-concept in Canadian and Polish youth, International Journal
of Adolescence and Youth, DOI: 10.1080/02673843.2013.804423
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2013.804423
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The adolescent mind in school: theory of mind and self-concept
in Canadian and Polish youth
Sandra Bosacki
a
*, Marta Bialecka-Pikul
b
and Marta Szpak
b
a
Faculty of Education, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada;
b
Institute of Psychology,
Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
(Received 20 February 2013; nal version received 8 May 2013)
Recent research shows that the ability to understand the mental states of self and others
[theory of mind (ToM)] develops throughout childhood into adolescence and may
differ across cultures. Although links may exist between ToM understanding and other
aspects of social cognition including self-concept, there remains a lack of cross-cultural
studies that explore the reasoning about the relationships between self (intrapersonal)
and other (interpersonal) understandings throughout adolescence. Accordingly, this
study explored the relationships between adolescents ToM and their self-concept in
Canadian and Polish samples. Findings revealed signicant negative relationships
between ToM and self-perception among Canadian participants only. Analyses of ToM
responses revealing psychological explanations of social situations were the most
common in both Polish and Canadian participants. Compared to the Polish participants,
Canadian children were more likely to refer to their self or personal experiences.
Findings are discussed in terms of developmental and psychocultural differences.
Keywords: adolescence; theory of mind, self-concept; cultural differences
Introduction
Young peoples development is inuenced by different social context, such as family,
community and school (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). During adolescence, the school context
plays a crucial role, especially given that youth spend a large proportion of their day in
school or pursuing school-related activities (Hughes, 2011). Within the school context, peer
relations play important role in adolescents lives (Larson, 2011), young people are
particularly concerned with how other people, their peers, perceive them (see e.g. Kiuru,
2008) as the thoughts of others inuence their developing sense of self (Harter, 1999). Self-
understanding or conception of the difference among your knowledge of yourself, your
knowledge of other people, their knowledge of themselves and their knowledge of you may
play an important role in social interactions, especially in the interpretation of actions (Dunn,
Creps, & Brown, 1996). Many researchers theorise that we come to learn about self by
learning about others and vice versa (Barresi & Moore, 1996; Bronfenbrenner, 1977). More
specically in terms of theory of mind (ToM) development, this is the ability to understand
not only different and more complex mental states but also mental processes, and stable
characteristics or personality traits of oneself and others that may be connected with
individual experience (Pillow, 2008; Selman, 1980). Researchers are now starting to explore
howadolescents think about the minds and emotions of self and others, also known as theory
of mind, how they perceive themselves as students (self-concept) and how these two aspects
q 2013 Taylor & Francis
*Corresponding author. Email: slbosacki@gmail.com
International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 2013
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2013.804423
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of social cognition are related. Thus, ToM may play a key role in adolescents
sociocognitive development and school functioning.
Regarding academic competence, associations between ToM and the production of
stories and general language ability have been found (Astington & Jenkins, 1999). ToM
facilitates childrens ability to self-monitor their cognitive process and engage in reective
thinking (Peskin & Astington, 2004). Taken together, these claims suggest that
understanding of mind is linked to higher-order thinking or more advanced mental-state
reasoning (Hughes, 2011). That is, children and adolescents who possess high levels of
ToM understanding may be more likely to think about their own and others thinking and
engage in critical philosophical enquiry and shared dialogue during the school days
(Lohmann, Tomasello, & Meyer, 2005). In addition, ToM performance is positively
correlated with teacher ratings of the childs social competence (e.g. Liddle & Nettle,
2006), and positive self-concept found to be the most important factor for adjustment and
for protection against common problem behaviour among adolescents (Ybrandt, 2008).
Although past research shows that ToM and self-concept are foundational to childrens
and adolescents educational experiences, little is known about the nature of the
relationships between ToM and self-concept among adolescents. Indeed, there remains a
dearth of studies that explore whether reasoning about self (intrapersonal) and others
(interpersonal) are reciprocal and interdependent, or remain isolated and independent from
one another (Hughes, 2011). It is thus not clear whether ToM is related to the adolescents
self-concepts. Applying this exploration of the role of school culture in ToM and self-
development to the larger cultural context, even less is known regarding the role of
cultural inuences on childrens ToM and self-development in schools within different
cultural contexts such as North American and European countries (Hughes, 2011). To
address this gap in the research, the purpose of this study is to explore relationships
between childrens ToM and self-perceptions across two cultural contexts, Canada and
Poland. Our main research question is: What are the relationships between ToM and self-
concept in Canadian and Polish youth?
There are various social-cognitive concepts that constitute the developing ToM in later
childhood and adolescence (Peterson, Wellman, & Slaughter, 2012). The concept that has
been most thoroughly investigated is that of false belief, involving recognition that an
individuals behaviour is based on howhe or she mentally represents the world, rather than on
objective reality. A meta-analysis revealed that children in Western industrialised countries
generally acquire false belief at the age of 35 years (Wellman, Cross, & Watson, 2001).
Research suggests that ToM development may depend on the maturity of ToM module
(Leslie, 2000), andall children, regardless of cultural context, mayacquire false belief concept
at the age of 35 years. Indeed, there are some evidence that indicate that false belief
understanding follows a similar developmental trajectory in diverse cultural groups including
children fromTribal Papua NewGuinea (Vinden, 1999), remote West Africa (Avis &Harris,
1991), rural Peru, traditional agrarian Samoa, and modern urban India and Thailand
(Callaghan et al., 2005). However, some studies have revealed that children fromSamoa have
difculties in passing false belief test (Mayer, 2012), and Liu, Wellman, Tardiff, and
Sabbaghs (2008) meta-analysis showed that Chinese children in comparison with North
American counterparts displayed 2-year delay in false belief understanding.
Those variations in false belief understanding could conceivably reect cross-cultural
contrasts in socialisation practices that emphasise different facets of social-cognitive
understanding. Given that socialisation practices aim to prepare children to function
effectively within the societal context (Keller, 2012), childrens understanding of causes
of behaviour may differ depending on cultural context they live in. A clear example of
2 S. Bosacki et al.
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this cultural difference in social cognition is the way people explain observed behaviours.
The fundamental attribution error (also known as correspondence bias), which is a
tendency to overestimate dispositional or personality-based explanations for the observed
behaviours of others and underestimate situational or context-focused explanations, is
fundamental only in Western individualistic cultures and not in collective cultures
(Miyamoto & Kitayama, 2002).
Regarding culture-based differences in false belief understanding, Samoa people
believe that one cannot know what is in another persons mind. That is, Samoans assert the
opacity of other minds (Robbins & Rumsey, 2008). It is thus possible that the common
assumption about the nature of the mind results in forms of interaction that are more rule-
based and not much dependent on referring to peoples mental states. Similarly, in China
and Iran, more so than in the West, the early mastery of traditional knowledge and skills is
emphasised, and children are socialised to honour elders and their wisdom (Sharifzadeh,
2004). These cultural contexts may, therefore, supply rich everyday exposure to concepts
of knowledge access, and relatively less exposure to the diversity of peoples beliefs.
In contrast, in Western cultures such as Australia, Canada and the USA, research suggests
that some parents may place high value on children learning self-assertion skills very early
(e.g. Goodnow, Cashmore, Cotton, & Knight, 1984), so that children are able to learn to
express their opinions and challenge the viewpoints of parents, teachers and peers
(e.g. Vinden, 1999). Daily experience in these cultural contexts may thus promote
relatively early understanding that different people can entertain diverse beliefs about the
same reality.
Both Canada and Poland offer interesting and complex new cultural contexts, in which
the ToM and self-concept development in adolescents is examined. In Canada, the
multicultural and multilingual cultural context provides a complex learning environment
for adolescents to learn diverse attitudes and beliefs towards self and others. Canada is
considered as a western individualistic culture, whereas Poland, which historically and
geographically stood between East and West, is considered as the culture with
intermediate levels of collectivism and individualism (Oyserman, Coon, & Kemmelmeier,
2002). As individualism implies that, e.g. abstract traits (as opposed to social, situational
descriptors) are central to self-denition and judgment, reasoning, and causal inference
are generally oriented toward the person rather than the situation or social context because
the decontextualized self is assumed to be a stable, causal nexus (Oyserman et al., 2002,
p. 5), the cultural differences between Canada and Poland may be reected in self-concept
and the way people explain social situations.
Based on a psychocultural approach to development that supports the assumption that
Polish and Canadian adolescents grow up in different cultural and linguistic contexts
(Bronfenbrenner, 1977; Bruner, 1996), one prediction is that adolescents social-cognitive
development of ToM understanding and self-concept may differ. Although cross-cultural
studies exist on adolescents self-esteem (Harter, 1999), and cross-cultural studies on
ToM understanding including studies on childrens mastery of the litmus ToM indicator,
false belief, has been examined in a variety of cultural contexts (Avis & Harris, 1991;
Callaghan et al., 2005; Vinden, 1999; Yazdi, German, Defeyter, & Siegal, 2006), no
previously published studies have examined differences in Canadian and Polish
adolescents social or ToM understanding. Thus, this study highlights how adolescents in
Canada and Poland interpret and explain ambiguous social situations within a ToM
framework, and if this ability is related to self-concept, how does it differ between two
culturally different groups. Thus, this study aimed to explore the following research
questions: rst, do Polish and Canadian adolescents interpret social situations differently
International Journal of Adolescence and Youth 3
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based on a ToM model, second, what is the relationship (if any) between ToM and self-
concept and, third, is the relationship between ToM and self-concept different between the
Polish and Canadian samples?
Method
The goal of this study was to explore the relationship between ToM and self-concept in
both Canadian and Polish adolescents. To address this question, two separate studies were
conducted with similar measures (ToM and self-concept), with the ToM and self-concept
measure translated into Polish for the Polish sample. The Canadian and Polish participants
are described in the following, in addition to the methods and procedure used in both
countries.
Participants
Canadian sample
As part of a larger longitudinal study of childrens ToM and its relationship with social-
cognitive and emotional competencies (Bosacki, 2008), this study involved 28 mainly
Euro-Canadian children (14 females, 14 males, range: 1013 years, M 10 years, 4 m)
from two schools within middle socio-economic status, semi-rural neighbourhoods.
Polish sample
As part of a larger study of ToM and its relationship with attachment and self-concept,
this study included 23 Polish students (18 females, 5 males, range: 1617 years,
M 16.6).
Procedure
Upon obtaining ethical clearance from the universities, school board, principals, teachers,
parents and students, each year adolescents completed standardised pencil-and-paper
measures and participated in individual interviews.
Data collection occurred during two time points. The rst time point consisted of a
group, in-class session where trained female researchers group administered a self-report
questionnaire to assess adolescents perceptions of self (Harter, 1985, 1988). To facilitate
task completion, researchers provided explicit written (on the blackboard) and verbal task
instructions to the children. Participants completed the task individually within the
classroom, and researchers monitored the class session and addressed any questions that
participants had as they completed the task. This task was completed within a 30-minute
class period.
The second time point involved an individual session in which children were involved
in interviews to explore their ToM understanding as measured by two socially ambiguous
stories. Interviews were conducted in a small room outside of the classroom, and all
interviews were audiotaped for subsequent transcription and analysis. The interview
session was approximately 2030 minutes in length. All tasks were administered by
experienced female researchers, and as research participants, children were reminded
that their responses would remain condential and that they had the opportunity to ask
questions or stop at any time during the research.
4 S. Bosacki et al.
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Measures
Self-concept
To assess childrens sense of general self-worth and self-competence in the domain
of academic skills, age-adequate versions of Harters (1985, 1988) Self-Perception
Prole (SPP) were used. It was Harters (1985) Self-Perception Prole for Children
(SPPC) (Canadian sample) and Self-Perception Prole for Adolescents (SPPA; Cieciuch
& Rusjan, 2010; Harter, 1988) (Polish sample). Based on past literature (Cassidy, 1999;
Harter, 1999), this study focused on three aspects that some researchers consider
particularly relevant to children including perceived behavioural conduct, physical
appearance and global self-worth. Consequently, depending of the version of SPP, 18
(SPPC) or 15 (SPPA) items were used (six or ve items for each of three aspects of self-
concept). Each item consists of the pair of statements, and children select the most liked
option (e.g. Some young people have many friends vs. Other young people do not have
many friends) and then indicate whether the statement is somewhat true or really true for
them (completely like me or a little like me). A value of 4 for each item denotes the
highest level of self-worth and a 1 denotes the lowest level. The result in each aspect of
self-worth may thus range from 6 to 24 in SPPC and 5 to 20 in SPPA. Regardless of the
version of SPP, the higher the result, the higher the self-worth.
Theory of mind
Gleaned from past research, to assess ToM adapted versions of two brief vignettes
consisting of an ambiguous social situation were used (social ambiguous stories;
Bosacki, 2000, 2008; Bosacki & Astington, 1999). Borrowing from theoretical work that
views ToM as a vehicle or instrument that is used to co-construct or narrate ones social
reality (Astington, 1993; Astington & Pelletier, 1996), and studies that investigate an
advanced ToM through the use of narratives (Hughes, 2011), this task aimed to assess
the ToM involved in interpreting social meaning from ambiguous stories. The stories
were socially ambiguous because past research has found childrens interpretations of
ambiguous social situations to be an effective method of eliciting childrens
representational understanding of mind and emotion (Dodge & Frame, 1982). Thus,
this task was developed to strike a balance between projective, open-ended narrative
tasks (e.g. Fox, 1991; Selman, 1980) and more forced-choice, experimental tasks (see
e.g. Baron-Cohen, 2010).
The two stories involved one scenario for girls (an unfamiliar girl approaches two
friends already engaged; two boys on a sports team need to choose another boy for their
team). However, no reason was given in this story to explain why the actors did not speak
to the recipient. Thus, participants had to infer the reason that the actors disregarded
the recipient.
In both Canadian and Polish samples, the same measures were used, although some
changes were made for the Polish sample to make it more age-appropriate and culturally
relevant. To increase cultural relevance, the context of the story was adapted to focus on the
workplace instead of school, and language differences were also made accordingly to adapt
fromEnglish to Polish (e.g. woman instead of girl). The original stories were translated into
Polish, then changed and retranslated into a new version. The author of the stories accepted
the modied version. See Appendix 1 for stories used in Canadian and Polish samples.
The stories were followed by the control questions that were to check whether
participants remember the storys content, and then the actual questions that assess how
participants explain and predict characters behaviours. The main test questions referred to
International Journal of Adolescence and Youth 5
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the behaviour of story characters (what will she/he/they do . . . ?) and the reason why they
behave that way (why did he/she/they do that . . . ?). Questions in Polish and Canadian
samples are provided in Appendix 1.
Coding
The Polish and Canadian samples followed similar story tasks and the conceptual rules for
coding (Bosacki, 2000). More specically, for both samples, responses to each question
were coded according to their accurateness (mental state and emotional labelling) and their
level of conceptual sophistication (understanding of the socially ambiguous situation or
what causes emotions for both self and peer). Due to the translation and adaptation of the
English-version measure to Polish, some of the coding procedures were adapted to apply
to the Canadian and Polish tasks accordingly. For example, for the Canadian sample, the
task was adapted from a larger version that contained more detailed questions regarding
social and moral understanding (see Bosacki, 2000, for further details). For the purpose of
this study, the questions that were reported in this study were the most similar to the
questions used in the Polish sample to attempt to replicate the measure.
For Polish sample, similar to the Canadian sample, responses were coded according to
the reference to mental states and the level of conceptual sophistication (see Appendix 1
for stories). In the case of questions 1 and 3 (prediction of characters behaviours), the
reference to mental states was assessed (yes/1 or no/0). The questions 2 and 4 (justication
questions and explanation of behaviours) were coded according to their level of
conceptual sophistication. A code of 0 was provided for intangential or I dont know
responses, 1behavioural/physical responses such as Tom would walk away and play
elsewhere, 2psychological responses that would include references to at least one to
two psychological or emotional states such as Tom thought that Kenny and Mark were
unfair, 3integrated psychological response that would be a sophisticated response
involving a complex (3 or more) and/or contradictory combination of psychological
emotional terms (e.g. Tom felt that Kenny and Mark were angry with him and wanted to
trick him into thinking they were his friends). Consequently, in one of the two stories,
participants could get 02 points for including mental states in predicting behaviours
(answers 1 and 3) and 06 points for the quality of each explanations (answers 2 and 4).
The aggregate results lead to a range of 08 points in one story, 016 points in the whole
two-story task for the Polish sample and 042 in Canadian sample (see Bosacki, 2000;
Bosacki & Astington, 1999). Regardless of the range of results, in each study, higher
scores reect higher ToM understanding. Thus, two measures were conceptually the same.
In addition, for both samples, the object of reference (story reference or self-experience) in
given answers were also coded. For example, the answer Its something I would do to be
nice would be coded as a psychological response and self-experience.
Results
The results rst outlined the descriptive statistics for the entire study (both Canadian and
Polish samples), followed by separate inferential statistics for each sample. Based on the
aggregate scores for ToM and self-concept, high scores represented a more sophisticated
understanding (Table 1).
Canadian sample
Childrens total ToM scores were signicantly correlated with perceptions of: behavioural
conduct (e.g. how well-behaved do you think you are?; r 20.506, p 0.01) and global
6 S. Bosacki et al.
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self-worth (e.g. how happy are you with yourself as a person?; r 20.430, p 0.036).
A marginally signicant negative correlation was found between childrens perceptions
of physical self and their total ToM score (r 20.380, p 0.05). Examination of self-
perception and ToM scores revealed no signicant differences.
Analysis of the type of ToM responses to the why questions (e.g. Why did Nancy/
Margie or Kenny/Tom behave the way they did?) showed that just over half of the
responses involved psychological explanations among Canadian adolescents (4064%)
(Table 2). Interestingly, regarding ToM justications, the majority of Canadian
participants (6882%) often referred to self-experience (e.g. Thats what happens to
me) for their ToM justications.
Polish sample
No correlations were found between ToM and: behavioural conduct, physical appearance,
global self-worth (r 0.09, p 0.49; r 20.15, p 0.68; r 20.18, p 0.39).
Analysis of the type of ToM responses to the why questions (e.g. Why did they do this?)
showed that the psychological explanations (5075%) dominated Polish adolescents
(Table 3). Interestingly, regarding ToM justications, the whole tested group referred to
the story content.
Table 1. Means and standard deviations of ToM and SPPC in Canadian and Polish adolescents.
Variable Canadian sample (n 28) Polish sample (n 23)
Total ToM
a
39.00 (3.42) 9.96 (2.29)
Self-perceptions
b
Behavioural conduct 15.08 (3.08) 15.78 (3.00)
Physical appearance 15.12 (2.35) 11.78 (4.38)
Global self-worth 15.95 (1.62) 13.57 (3.42)
a
Total ToM score; range: 042 (Canadian sample) and 016 (Polish sample); higher scores reect higher ToM
understanding.
b
SPPS and SPPA; range: 024 and 020; higher scores reect higher self-perceptions.
Table 2. The frequency of types of answers in why questions among Canadian adolescents.
Why questions (x.y the y why question in story x)
Type of answer 1.1 1.2 2.1 2.2
Tangential 0 0 0 0
Situational/behavioural 11 10 17 13
Psychological 14 14 10 11
Integrated psychological 3 4 1 4
Table 3. The frequency of types of answers in why questions among Polish adolescents.
Why questions (x.y the y why question in story x)
Type of answer 1.1 1.2 2.1 2.2
Tangential 1 0 1 1
Situational/behavioural 3 5 3 5
Psychological 17 15 12 15
Integrated psychological 2 3 6 1
International Journal of Adolescence and Youth 7
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Discussion
This research explored relationships between adolescents ToM and their self-concept in
two separate cross-cultural samples in Canada and Poland. Thus, the main goal of this
study was to explore how adolescents in Canada and Poland interpret and explain
ambiguous social situations within a ToM framework, and if this ability is related to self-
concept, how does it differ between two culturally different groups. Thus, this study
aimed to explore the following research questions: rst, do Polish and Canadian
adolescents interpret social situations differently based on a ToM model, second, what is
the relationship (if any) between ToM and self-concept and third, is the relationship
between ToM and self-concept different between the Polish and Canadian samples? The
results are discussed in terms of the aforementioned questions followed by limitations
and implications for developmentally and culturally appropriate practice and future
research.
Overall, this study suggests that relationships between ToM and self-concept may
differ between the Canadian and Polish samples. Regarding the rst research question, the
results show that the majority of Canadian participants tried to understand a social
ambiguous situation through references to their own experiences, whereas the Polish
sample did not refer to personal experiences in the interpretations of ToM stories. We
imagine that there may exist many explanations to make sense of this nding. First,
children in the late childhood and pre-adolescent age may rely on their own experiences as
a basis for understanding other people (Harter, 1999). If it is so, that result would support
the simulation approach (e.g. Harris, 2000) in which social cognition depends upon the
process of projecting ones own experience. A second signicant result found that,
compared with the Polish participants, a positive association was found between ToM and
self-concept among the Canadian participants only.
Developmentally, Canadian participants were on average younger in age than the
Polish participants. It is possible that the younger Canadian participants explained social
situations using their own experiences (by simulation). In contrast, the older Polish
participants, on the basis of generalisation, explained social situations without direct
reference to their personal experiences. This difference between the ndings in the two
samples, especially lack of correlation between ToM and self-concept in older group, may
be related to important developmental changes that occur during adolescence. Generally,
we could interpret this nding as an expression of the process of diversication of
two developmental trajectories self-concept development and ToM development.
In particular, we want to point the well-documented interpretation that, during
adolescence, the maturation of brain structures is related to changes in cognitive
functioning and also social cognition (see e.g. Blakemore, 2007; Burnett, Sebastian,
Cohen Kadosh, & Blakemore, 2011; Moriguchi, Ohnishi, Mori, Matsud, & Komaki,
2007). The development of abstract thinking may play a crucial role in the transition from
self-experience-based ToM to more general (or abstract) ToM (see also Nelson, 2007). As
we could not directly test for age differences in this study, future research needs to explore
the developmental changes that may inuence the relationships among sociocultural and
neurocognitive functioning, ToM and self-concept across the lifespan and in multiple
cultural contexts.
As mentioned earlier, the present ndings also support the psychocultural theoretical
framework that emphasises the importance of social context in self-development (Barresi
& Moore, 1996; Bronfenbrenner, 1977). Culturally, in Poland, compared with Canada,
there may be possible power differentials within the researcher participant relationships
8 S. Bosacki et al.
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given that the Polish cultural context may emphasise a greater sense of collectivism as
opposed to individualism that may be more focused in Canada (Oyserman et al., 2002).
Given this possible power differential, Polish youth may be less likely to refer to the self
or a more personal interpretation of the ToM stories, as a sign of respect towards the
researcher who may be perceived as an authority gure.
In contrast, Canadian youth may feel more comfortable within the participant researcher
relationship as the Canadian culture may place an emphasis on individualism as compared
with collectivism, and thus more likely to refer to their individual experiences. Nevertheless,
given that for the Canadian and Polish samples we did not collect data about the
individualistic/collectivistic orientations of the parents (e.g. self-reported parenting practices
and attitudes), we realise that the family structure and parental beliefs may have inuenced
our results. Thus, we must interpret our ndings with caution and support future research.
In addition to cultural and developmental limitations, the use of translated measures
(from English to Polish) may have inuenced the results as the tasks were adapted and
translated from a Canadian-English version to a Polish version. Furthermore, the general
language competence and working memory of all participants may have inuenced the
results and would be useful to include in a future study. For example, according to
previous research (Bialystok, 1999; Kovacs, 2009), ToM should be explored in various
cultural contexts in which children speak more than one language because the ability to
speak more thank one language may inuence ToM performance directly and indirectly
(via better executive function in bi- and multilinguals).
Moreover, given that according to the previous research conversation with parents
and peers may play a role in the development of ToM and self-concept (Dunn, 1994;
Ensor & Hughes, 2008; Harter, 1999; Nelson, 2005), there remains a need to explore the
relationships among multilingualism, ToM and self-concept in Canadian and Polish youth
as well as in other countries. To help educators learn about the role of family relationships
and language in childrens ToM and self-development, future research needs to explore
the role parental language and educational background, and cultural beliefs may play in
young peoples self-concepts and ToM understanding.
Apart fromthe limitations, the current study furthers the discourse on ToMdevelopment
cross-culturally by highlighting the complexity of socioemotional experiences during the
transition from late childhood to adolescence, in particular regarding issues of ToM and
self-perceptions. Consistent with the claimamong researchers (Denham, 1998; Dunn, 2008;
Hughes, 2011), the results of this study warrant further investigation and may encourage
further longitudinal study of the relationships and the associations among ToM
understanding and metacognitive and social-cognitive abilities (e.g. self-understanding,
moral sensibility, understanding and creation of humour/jokes, verbal aggression and
teasing, irony and sarcasm, and lying) among adolescence across different cultural contexts
(Oberle et al., 2011).
The present research makes two signicant contributions to the current discourse on
social cognition in adolescence. Theoretically, it highlights the complex relationships
between higher-order ToM understanding and perceptions of self in Canadian and Polish
youth. Given the applications of the results to an educational context, practically the
results of the study provide empirical groundwork for cross-cultural educational
programmes that may aim to foster cultural competence and social-cognitive skills. The
present ndings shed new light on patterns of cross-cultural comparisons in ToM as well
as revealing cross-cultural variation in other social-cognitive concepts that may inuence
ToM and reect variation in adolescents school experiences.
International Journal of Adolescence and Youth 9
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Acknowledgements
Portions of the present study (Canadian sample) were supported in part by a standard research grant
to the rst author from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (#410-2003-
0950). Many thanks to the participating schools for their support, and to Spogmai Akseer, Kamilla
Akseer, Tabasum Akseer, Mandy Frake, Wenchun Han, Pam Klassen-Dueck, Mary Grace Lao,
Brianne Litke, Shelley Smith, Katie Sykes, and Amanda Varnish for their help with data collection
and data coding.
Notes on contributors
Sandra Bosacki teaches in the Faculty of Education at Brock University. Her main research interests
involve social and emotional development in children and adolescents within the educational
context.
Marta Bialecka-Pikul is a research fellow and lecturer in the Institute of Psychology of Jagiellonian
University (Krakow, Poland). As a developmental psychologist she is interested mainly in cognitive
and social development especially in theory of mind in lifespan perspective.
Marta Szpak is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Psychology of Jagiellonian University (Krakow,
Poland). Her main interests concern the development of mentalization and consequences of its
distortion for mental and social functioning.
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Appendix 1
Nancy/Margie
Nancy and Margie are watching the children in the playground. Without saying a word, Nancy
nudges Margie and looks across the playground at the new girl swinging on the swing set.
Then Nancy looks back at Margie and smiles. Margie nods, and the two of them start off
toward the girl at the swingset. The new girl sees the strange girl walk towards her. Shed seen
them nudging and smiling at each other. Although they are in her class, she has never spoken
to them before. The new girl wonders what they could want.
Kenny/Mark
Kenny and Mark are co-captains of the soccer team. They have one person left to choose for
the team. Without saying a word, Mark winks at Kenny and looks at Tom who is one of the
last children left to be chosen. Mark looks back at Kenny and smiles. Kenny nods and chooses
Tom to be on their team. Tom sees Mark and Kenny winking and smiling at each other. Tom,
who is usually one of the last to be picked for team sports, wonders why Kenny wants him to
be on his team.
Details for the specic coding procedures can be found in previous research (e.g. Bosacki,
2000; Bosacki & Astington, 1999).
Nancy/Margie (Polish version)
During lunch break, Nancy and Margie are watching other workers in the canteen. Without
saying a word, Nancy nudges Margie and looks across the canteen/eatery at the new girl
12 S. Bosacki et al.
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eating. Then Nancy looks back at Margie and smiles. Margie nods, and the two of them start
off towards the girl. The new girl sees the strange women walk towards her. Shed seen them
nudging and smiling at each other. Although they are in her team, she has never spoken to
them before. The new girl wonders what they could want.
Comprehension/memory questions
1. Does the new girl see Nancy and Margie nudging and smiling at each other?
Yes/No
2. Has the new girl ever spoken to Nancy and Margie before? Yes/No
Test questions
1. What do you think will happen next?
2. Why Margie and Nancy will do this?
3. Could you tell other end of the story?
4. Why Margie and Nancy will do this?
Kenny/Mark (Polish version)
Kenny and Mark are co-captains of the soccer team. They have one person left to choose for
the team. Without saying a word, Mark winks at Kenny and looks at Tom who is one of the
last players left to be chosen. Mark looks back at Kenny and smiles. Kenny nods and chooses
Tom to be on their team. Tom sees Mark and Kenny winking and smiling at each other. Tom,
who is usually one of the last to be picked for team sports, wonders why Kenny wants him to
be on his team.
Comprehension/memory questions
1. Does Tom see Mark and Kenny winking and smiling at each other? Yes/No
2. Is Tom usually the rst person to be picked for team sports? Yes/No
Test questions
1. What do you think will happen next?
2. Why Kenny and Mark will do this?
3. Could you tell other end of the story?
4. Why Kenny and Mark will do this?
International Journal of Adolescence and Youth 13
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