Development and validation of the newly developed Preschool Theory of Mind Assessment (ToMA-P)

I-Ning Fu; Cheng-Te Chen; Kuan-Lin Chen; Meng-Ru Liu; Ching-Lin Hsieh

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1274204

Development and validation of the newly developed Preschool Theory of Mind Assessment (ToMA-P)

Front Psychol. 2024 Apr 8:15:1274204. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1274204. eCollection 2024.

Authors

I-Ning Fu^{1

2

3}, Cheng-Te Chen⁴, Kuan-Lin Chen^{3

5

6}, Meng-Ru Liu¹, Ching-Lin Hsieh^{2

7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Child Developmental Assessment and Intervention Center, Taipei City Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
² School of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
³ Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
⁵ Institute of Allied Health Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
⁶ Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
⁷ Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁸ Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Medical and Health Science, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan.

Abstract

Introduction: Theory of mind (ToM) refers to the ability to understand and attribute mental states to oneself and others. A ToM measure is warranted for preschool children to assess their ToM development from a multidimensional perspective (i.e., cognitive and affective dimensions). This study aimed to develop the Preschool Theory of Mind Assessment (ToMA-P) and to evaluate its construct validity and applicability.

Methods: The ToMA-P was developed based on comprehensive literature review and revised with expert panel feedback. Its psychometric properties were evaluated in 205 typically developing preschoolers with Rasch analysis for its dimensionality, item difficulties, and convergent validity.

Results: The results indicated that all ToMA-P items, except for one, fit the hypothesized two-dimensional construct. The item difficulties in the cognitive and affective dimensions followed developmental sequences. The ToMA-P scores exhibited good convergent validity, as evidenced by its significant correlations with age, verbal comprehension, adaptive functions, and daily ToM performance (p < 0.05). Children's responses and behaviors also showed that the ToMA-P has good applicability.

Discussion: This study provides empirical evidence that the ToMA-P measures cognitive and affective ToM following developmental sequences, and that it has potential as a clinical tool for assessing ToM in preschool children.

Keywords: assessment; item response theory; multidimensional construct; preschool children; theory of mind.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, under Grant MOST 109-2628-B-006-023, MOST 110-2628-B-006-031, and 111-2628-B-006-021.