Link between the inhibitory control and the false belief understanding, and the effect of the environment on the theory of mind in Lebanese preschoolers

Abstract

Preschool ages are significant for the acquisition of ToM and EF according to the theoretical points. ToM involves understanding one's and others' mental states, while EF encompasses cognitive processes facilitating goal-directed behavior. Research highlights the persistent link between ToM and EF across different cultures. Nonetheless, there is a lack of knowledge regarding these aspects specifically in the Lebanese population. Hence this research aims to explore the relationship between (ToM) and (EF) in preschool Lebanese children aged 3 to 6, with a focus on False Belief Understanding (FBU) and Inhibitory Control (IC) as both are key for complex cognitive and social functions, relatively in the specified age period Besides, this study seeks to establish the moderating effect of environmental factors, which includes the level of education of the parents and number of siblings on ToM success.The study involved 30 preschool Lebanese children, utilizing the “ACB-TOM” (Arabic Version For Battery Children – Theory Of Mind) for ToM assessment and “Hearts and flowers” task for IC measurement. Some of the ethics issues that were outlined comprised of informed consent, participants’ emotional state, privacy, and culture in relation to the conducting of the research. The regression design has been utilized to analyze the relationship between IC and FBU. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests were employed to analyse age differences while the levels of significance for the ToM aspects were established using a one-way ANOVA test. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the effects of family factors on the overall ToM success. Results showed that higher IC scores were significantly and strongly associated with higher FBU scores r (30) = 0.62; p < 0.001. In children aged <55 months, the results showed that higher IC scores were significantly and moderately-to-strongly associated with higher FB scores r (15) = 0.67; p = 0.006. In children aged 55 months and above, the results showed no significant association between the IC and FB scores r (15) = 0.44; p = 0.103. And lastly no statistically justified difference was observed regarding ToM scores between the mothers belonging to school level and those belonging to university level groups (4. 67 ± 1. 53 and 6. 15 ± 2. 37) t (28) = -1. 05, p = 0. 302) and fathers with a school and university level of education (5. 80 ± 1. 92 vs 6. 04 ± 2. 42) t (28) = -0. 21, p = 0. 837). Likewise, there was a small but significant positive correlation between participants’ IC score (Total score r = 0. 47 p = 0. 008), while there was no correlation between participants’ number of siblings (Total score r = 0. 26 p = 0. 174) and the total ToM score. The linear regression analysis with the ToM scores as the dependent variable indicated that the higher IC scores predicting the ToM scores were statistically significant; Beta = 0. No similar investigations have been conducted in the Lebanese context which made this research unique and important to understand Lebanese preschoolers' cognitive and social development. Such discoveries could be useful to educators, parents, and caregivers by aiding in the better understanding and combination of teaching methodologies and rehabilitation therapies for children with such issues.