Siblings in the development of executive control and a theory of mind

The purpose of the study was to determine whether the relationship between siblings and theory of mind might be mediated by executive abilities. The p articipants were 119 children from a lower income community, between the ag es of 3 and 5, who completed an executive function battery and tests of an understanding of mind. The correlation data suggested a link between siblin gs and executive control and between cheery of mind and executive control b ut, surprisingly, not between siblings and cheery of mind. A further experi ment with 71 children indirectly highlighted the potential contaminating in fluence of socio;economic status (SES) on the sibling advantage in theory o f mind. Multiple regression analyses, controlling for age and verbal IQ, di scriminated between the types of executive processes most likely to predict performance in mental understanding. The implications of this result are d iscussed in terms of a 'primary' and 'secondary' executive deficit account.