The Relationship between Psychological Understanding and Positive Social Behaviors.

Investigated the relationship between psychological understanding and positive social behavior in preschool children. Found that both mental state understanding and emotion understanding were positively related to teacher ratings of social skills, behavioral observers' global ratings of social skills, and peer popularity. When language ability was partialled out of the relationships, many significant correlations disappeared; however, for variables related to peers' perceptions, psychological understanding continued to predict unique variance. (Author/KB)