Az édesanyák szerepe a gyermekek mentalizációs szókincsének fejlettségében
The Role of Mothers in the Development of Children’s Mentalization Vocabulary

Summary/Abstract: The basis for understanding many complex mentalization processes is the individual’s ability to recognize and use expressions related to mental states. Today, several research findings show that mothers and siblings play a significant role in the development of theory of mind abilities. In this research, I sought to determine whether the way mothers think about and describe their children has an impact on the acquisition of mentalization processes in children. It is also examined the mentalization vocabulary of the children according to the mothers participating in the survey and the order in which they acquired the given expressions. My hypothesis was that the way mothers perceive their children’s mental abilities influences the development of mentalization, especially the development of mentalization-related vocabulary. The online questionnaire was completed by 86 mothers. I examined three factors related to the influence of mothers on their children’s mentalization: 1) Were there specific, meaningful baby words in the child’s vocabulary before they started speaking? 2) How do mothers describe their children, and do these descriptions include adjectives referring to the child’s cognitive abilities? 3)Using a list of 20 words expressing mental states, respondents had to identify which words their children were already actively using at the time of the study. The results show that there is a significant correlation between how mothers perceive their children’s mental abilities and how words related to mental states appear in their children’s vocabulary.

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