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Friendlessness and theory of mind: A prospective longitudinal study

Overview of attention for article published in British Journal of Developmental Psychology, September 2014
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  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (95th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (83rd percentile)

Mentioned by

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1 news outlet
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39 X users
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1 Facebook page

Citations

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103 Dimensions

Readers on

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228 Mendeley
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Title
Friendlessness and theory of mind: A prospective longitudinal study
Published in
British Journal of Developmental Psychology, September 2014
DOI 10.1111/bjdp.12060
Pubmed ID
Authors

Elian Fink, Sander Begeer, Candida C. Peterson, Virginia Slaughter, Marc de Rosnay

Abstract

Chronic friendlessness in childhood predicts adverse mental health outcomes throughout life, yet its earliest roots are poorly understood. In theory, developing a theory of mind (ToM) should help children gain mutual friends and one preschool study (Peterson & Siegal, 2002. Br J Dev Psychol, 20, 205) suggested a cross-sectional connection. We therefore used a 2-year prospective longitudinal design to explore ToM as a predictor of mutual friendship in 114 children from age 5 to 7 years after controlling potential confounds including language ability and group popularity. Confirming friendship's distinctiveness from group sociometric status, numerous group-rejected children (53%) had a mutual friend whereas 23% of those highest in group status did not. Five-year-olds with a mutual friend significantly outperformed their friendless peers on a comprehensive ToM battery (basic and advanced false belief). Longitudinally, chronically friendless 7-year-olds (no friends at either testing time) stood out for their exceptionally poor Time 1 ToM understanding even after controlling for group popularity, age, and language skill. Extending previous evidence of ToM's predictive links with later social and cognitive outcomes, these results for mutual friendship suggest possible interventions to help reduce the lifelong mental health costs of chronic friendlessness.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 39 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 228 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
New Zealand 1 <1%
Sweden 1 <1%
Portugal 1 <1%
Germany 1 <1%
Unknown 224 98%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 41 18%
Student > Ph. D. Student 35 15%
Student > Bachelor 35 15%
Researcher 17 7%
Student > Doctoral Student 12 5%
Other 30 13%
Unknown 58 25%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 103 45%
Social Sciences 24 11%
Medicine and Dentistry 9 4%
Neuroscience 5 2%
Linguistics 4 2%
Other 19 8%
Unknown 64 28%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 38. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 May 2022.
All research outputs
#1,022,657
of 24,677,985 outputs
Outputs from British Journal of Developmental Psychology
#61
of 585 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#10,419
of 242,593 outputs
Outputs of similar age from British Journal of Developmental Psychology
#3
of 12 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,677,985 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 95th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 585 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 17.8. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 242,593 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 12 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 83% of its contemporaries.