文章基本信息

标题：Theory of Mind Ability and Socioeconomic Status, a Study of Street-Connected Children and Adolescents in Ecuador
本地全文：下载
作者：Graham Pluck
期刊名称：Psych
电子版ISSN：2624-8611
出版年度：2021
卷号：3
期号：2
页码：72-84
DOI：10.3390/psych3020008
语种：English
出版社：MDPI AG
摘要：Family socioeconomic status (SES) is closely associated with cognitive ability in children and adolescents. However, most of the research has come from high-income countries. There is only limited research on ‘street children’, who represent an aspect of low-SES particularly associated with low- and middle-income counties. The current research in Quito, Ecuador, compared a group of street-connected youth with a not street-connected control group on two different measures of theory of mind ability and verbal comprehension. Initial analysis revealed that the street-connected sample scored significantly below the level of the control sample for verbal comprehension. For the main analysis, street-connected youth were matched to control participants for age, sex, and verbal comprehension scores. The street-connected sample was found to perform significantly below the control sample on both measures of theory of mind. Furthermore, worse performance appeared to be linked to severity of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) within the street-connected sample. In conclusion, the association of relatively poor verbal comprehension with street-connectedness is consistent with existing research from high-income countries on SES gradients and cognitive development. In contrast, theory of mind ability, a core aspect of social cognition, may be particularly linked to the street-connectedness form of low SES that exists in many low- and middle-income countries.