Bridging the Gap to Other Minds: SES Relates to Maternal Cognitive Talk While Individualism Is Negatively Linked to Child False Belief Understanding

We examined relationships between maternal cultural values, mental-state talk, and children’s ToM in Turkiye (N=112, 53 boys, M=51.68, SD=5.25). While SES was linked to maternal cognitive talk, maternal individualism was negatively associated with children’s false belief understanding. Findings suggest high SES supports linguistic scaffolding, yet achievement-oriented values may hinder ToM.