Profiles of different domains of the theory of mind among rural preschoolers

Understanding others’ thoughts and feelings is a social-cognitive capacity known as the theory of mind (ToM). Previous studies have attempted to explore children’s ToM from a specific domain (personal or moral) while lacking comprehensive evidence across domains. Based on the social domain theory, the present study is the first in our knowledge to explore the developmental characteristics of the ToM within different domains of left-behind preschoolers in rural China. This study used a mixed experimental design of 3 (age groups: 4-, 5-, 6-year-old) × 2 (left-behind status: left-behind, non-left-behind) × 3 (domain types: moral, conventional, personal) with 231 rural children aged 4–6 years, combined with a story–question approach to explore the developmental characteristics of their ToM in moral, conventional, and personal domains through tasks, such as rule awareness and false beliefs. The results showed significant main effects of age group, left-behind status, and domain type. Moreover, the interaction effect of age group and domain type was significant. The following conclusions were obtained: (1) The developmental level of the ToM in moral, conventional, and personal domains of rural preschoolers increased with age and the older preschoolers had a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of the ToM in each domain; (2) The experience of being left behind was detrimental to the development of preschoolers’ ToM in each domain; (3) There were differences in children’s development in the moral-, conventional-, and personal-related ToM tasks, with the personal domain ToM developing more slowly; (4) The younger preschoolers showed a clear differentiation between the domains of ToM, with a higher level of development in domains of morality and convention. As preschoolers get older, their performance in the domains becomes more comparable.