The relation between aggression and theory of mind in children: A meta-analysis.

Previous findings on the association between theory of mind (ToM) and aggression in children are mixed. The social skills deficit view regarded ToM as a single-edged sword and proposed that a lack of ToM can lead to aggression, while the double-edged sword view proposed that children with advanced ToM can still show much aggression because children can also leverage ToM to harm others. To resolve the dispute between the two views, we conducted a meta-analysis combining cross-sectional and longitudinal findings from 53 studies including a total of 11,579 children aged between 2 and 15 years. The overall negative correlation between ToM and aggression was small but significant (r = -0.08). The negative correlation was robust, with the magnitude of the correlation being similar across physical versus relational aggression, proactive versus reactive aggression, cognitive versus affective ToM, preschoolers versus school-aged children, different aggression measurements, and different levels of societal individualism. Moreover, the negative correlation was found regardless of whether ToM and aggression were measured concurrently or at different time points, but the correlation was the largest when ToM was measured before aggression. Whether the aggression was bullying or not also moderated the association, with ToM only being negatively related to non-bullying aggression but not bullying. Together, these findings suggest that ToM is a single-edged sword to decrease general aggression and that aggression might also give rise to lower ToM capacity during development. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: This study systemically reviewed the existing mixed findings on the association between aggression and ToM during childhood using a meta-analysis. There was a negative correlation between ToM and aggression in children aged between 2 and 15 years. The negative correlation between aggression and ToM was stronger when ToM was measured first, followed by aggression, than vice versa. There was a negative correlation between non-bullying aggression and ToM, whereas there was no correlation between bullying and ToM.

A meta-analysis of the relationship between empathy and executive function.

The current meta-analysis was designed to determine the relationship between executive function (EF) and empathy, as well as to identify any moderators. A search of Chinese and English databases yielded 18 studies and 67 effect sizes involving a total of 6006 participants. Results with the random effects model showed that EF was significantly positively correlated with empathy (r = .14, p < .001). Subgroup analysis showed that EF was more strongly related to cognitive empathy (r = .20, p < .001) than to affective empathy (r = .09, p = .03). Looking at the two dimensions of empathy, we further found that cognitive empathy is closely related to subcomponents of EF, including inhibitory control (r = .23, p < .001), working memory (r = .20, p < .001), and cognitive flexibility (r = .15, p = .036), while only affective empathy was closely related to inhibitory control (r = .12, p < .001). Results suggested that future research should consider that the relationship between empathy and EF varies depending on the division of specific subcomponents. This finding may help in explaining possible mechanisms of how EF affects empathy.