Children's social representations in dolls' house play and theory of mind tasks, and their relation to family adversity and child disturbance

Five-year-old children of depressed and well mothers were assessed on theor ), of mind tasks, and enacted scenes from their family lives in dolls' hous e play. Performance on theory of mind tasks was only weakly, related to fam ily circumstances and child disturbance, but was significantly associated w ith measures of the child's general and verbal intelligence. In contrast, c hildren's social representations elicited during dolls' house play showed s ystematic relationships with family adversity (maternal depression and pare ntal conflict) in interaction with the child's gender: girls exposed to dif ficulties depicted particularly harmonious mother-child relationships, and their accounts showed a high degree of narrative structure, while boys so e xposed depicted poor parenting, and their accounts were relatively incohere nt. The children's dolls house play was also associated with several aspect s of their wider experience, including objective assessments of mother-chil d interactions, and behavioural and emotional adjustment in school. This te chnique may usefully elucidate the basis of child behavioural problems and psychopathology in the context of disturbed family relationships, and provi de a route for therapeutic intervention.