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Bonazinga, Laura A.

Communication Sciences

2008

MS

The Perception of Children's Theory of Mind Measure (Revised version, PCToMM -R) is an informant measure designed to assess children's theory of mind competence. The present study investigated the psychometric properties of the measure in a sample of 60 mothers whom completed the measure for 87 children that are typically developing and between the ages of 2 and 12 years. The PCToMM-R demonstrated excellent temporal stability for both a shorter (approximately two weeks) and a longer (appromimately 6 weeks) retesting interval. The PCToMM-R was also found to have excellent internal consistency. The PCToMM-R performed well on several analyses of validity, as reflected in an increase in scores on the PCToMM-R corresponding to an increase in child age. Further, the PCToMM-R discriminated between children aged 2.5 to 3.5 years and children aged 4.5 to 5.5 years and an increase in scores on the PCToMMR correlated with an increase in child performance on a ToM Task Battery. In addition, further support for mothers' accuracy in predicting their child's ToM abilities was found. The implications for future research and the use of the PCToMM-R in research and clinical settings as well as the limitations associated with the measure are discussed.