Language dominance moderates links between theory of mind and children’s externalizing behaviors in a multilingual community

Abstract

Theory of mind (ToM)—understanding one’s own and others’ mental states—is influenced by cultural and linguistic contexts and, in turn, influences multiple aspects of individuals’ lives including mental health. Although significant research has examined how multilingualism affects ToM performance, far less is known about whether and how cultural contexts impact relations between ToM and mental health. In a single low-income U.S.-Mexico border community in which English and Spanish were both widely used, we found that children’s (N = 110, aged 8–12 years) dominant language moderated relations between ToM and externalizing behaviors. For English-dominant children, higher ToM scores related to lower parent-reported externalizing symptomatology, but this relation was not significant for Spanish-dominant children. ToM performance and internalizing behaviors were not related in either group. These results have implications for conceptualizing connections between social cognition and real-world social outcomes and highlight the importance of considering the nuances of cultural contexts even within single communities.