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The relationship between a child's affect regulation and their social cognition (theory of mind and empathy)
Affect regulation is an essential component of human development and is crucial for successful social functioning and emotional health. Similarly social cognitive skills like empathy and Theory of Mind (ToM) are also necessary for successful social understanding and interaction in childhood. Researc...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
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Department of Psychology
2026
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| _version_ | 1867613155839967232 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Diara, Heesoo Melanie |
| author2 | Malcom-Smith, Susan |
| author_browse | Diara, Heesoo Melanie Malcom-Smith, Susan |
| author_facet | Malcom-Smith, Susan Diara, Heesoo Melanie |
| author_sort | Diara, Heesoo Melanie |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Affect regulation is an essential component of human development and is crucial for successful social functioning and emotional health. Similarly social cognitive skills like empathy and Theory of Mind (ToM) are also necessary for successful social understanding and interaction in childhood. Researchers have reported associations between affect regulation and social cognition. For example, research shows that affect regulation is essential for empathic concern and behaviour. Additionally, studies in clinical populations have highlighted the relationship between affect regulation and ToM. Based on the literature, it was inferred that successful regulation of one's affect would result in greater empathic and ToM ability. Hence the study hypothesized that children's affect regulation would positively predict their empathy and ToM, over and above any effects of the covariates (age, IQ and working memory, gender, household income or highest level of maternal education (HLOE)). Data collected from one hundred and eighty five (N = 185) neuro-typical primary school children between the ages of 6 and 13, from three mainstream public primary schools in Cape Town was analysed. The results found no significant association between participant affect regulation scores and their empathy and ToM scores. Thus, it was concluded that affect regulation was not a significant predictor of social cognition in this sample. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/43121 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | English eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:31:38.662Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | Department of Psychology |
| publisherStr | Department of Psychology |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/43121 The relationship between a child's affect regulation and their social cognition (theory of mind and empathy) Diara, Heesoo Melanie Malcom-Smith, Susan Susan Theory of Mind social cognition Cape Town Affect regulation is an essential component of human development and is crucial for successful social functioning and emotional health. Similarly social cognitive skills like empathy and Theory of Mind (ToM) are also necessary for successful social understanding and interaction in childhood. Researchers have reported associations between affect regulation and social cognition. For example, research shows that affect regulation is essential for empathic concern and behaviour. Additionally, studies in clinical populations have highlighted the relationship between affect regulation and ToM. Based on the literature, it was inferred that successful regulation of one's affect would result in greater empathic and ToM ability. Hence the study hypothesized that children's affect regulation would positively predict their empathy and ToM, over and above any effects of the covariates (age, IQ and working memory, gender, household income or highest level of maternal education (HLOE)). Data collected from one hundred and eighty five (N = 185) neuro-typical primary school children between the ages of 6 and 13, from three mainstream public primary schools in Cape Town was analysed. The results found no significant association between participant affect regulation scores and their empathy and ToM scores. Thus, it was concluded that affect regulation was not a significant predictor of social cognition in this sample. 2026-04-22T12:23:22Z 2026-04-22T12:23:22Z 2023 2026-04-22T12:19:47Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters Masters http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43121 en eng application/pdf Department of Psychology Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Theory of Mind social cognition Cape Town Diara, Heesoo Melanie The relationship between a child's affect regulation and their social cognition (theory of mind and empathy) |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | The relationship between a child's affect regulation and their social cognition (theory of mind and empathy) |
| title_full | The relationship between a child's affect regulation and their social cognition (theory of mind and empathy) |
| title_fullStr | The relationship between a child's affect regulation and their social cognition (theory of mind and empathy) |
| title_full_unstemmed | The relationship between a child's affect regulation and their social cognition (theory of mind and empathy) |
| title_short | The relationship between a child's affect regulation and their social cognition (theory of mind and empathy) |
| title_sort | relationship between a child s affect regulation and their social cognition theory of mind and empathy |
| topic | Theory of Mind social cognition Cape Town |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43121 |
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