Understanding self-presentation by children. The role of theory of mind and accuracy of mothers' knowledge about their children's thinking.

The article describes a study that investigated the relationship between accuracy of mothers' knowledge about their children's states of mind and the child's advanced theory of mind (e.g. second order belief understanding) and the children's understanding of self-presentation. Forty three mothers and their children participated in the study. We examined the children's theory of mind, their understanding of two self-presentational strategies (ingratiation and self-promotion) and, also, we estimated the accuracy of their mothers' knowledge about the children's states of mind. The results showed that the relationship between accuracy of mothers knowledge about their children's thinking and the children's understanding of self-presentational strategies are mediated by the level of the children's theory of mind. In practice, the results implicate that not only some explicit techniques of direct social skills training, but also implicit competencies like mothers' awareness of their child᾿s state of mind, might be helpful in improving the child's knowledge about social world and strategies of psychosocial adjustment.