Peer Relations and the Understanding of Faux Pas: Longitudinal Evidence for Bidirectional Associations
Open accessAbstract
Research connecting children’s understanding of mental states to their peer relations at school remains scarce. Previous work by the authors demonstrated that children’s understanding of mental states in the context of a faux pas—a social blunder involving unintentional insult—is associated with concurrent peer rejection. The present report describes a longitudinal follow-up investigation of 210 children from the original sample, aged 5–6 or 8–9 years at Time 1. The results support a bidirectional model suggesting that peer rejection may impair the acquisition of faux pas understanding, and also that, among older children, difficulties in understanding faux pas predict increased peer rejection. These findings highlight the important and complex associations between social understanding and peer relations during childhood.
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Cross-sectional studies have shown age-related change in theory of mind ability in middle childhood and early adolescence.
“a number of cross-sectional studies have shown age-related change in ToM ability in middle childhood and early adolescence (Banerjee et al., 2011; Devine et al., 2023; Osterhaus et al., 2016; Peterson & Wellman, 2019).”
From Longitudinal development of theory of mind in adolescence and its associations with fiction reading experience. (2025) · cites this paper as Banerjee et al., 2011
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Individual Differences in Inhibitory Control and Children's Theory of Mind
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Meta-Analysis of Theory of Mind and Peer Popularity in the Preschool and Early School Years
Slaughter, V., Imuta, K., Peterson, C. C., & Henry, J. D. (2015) · Child Development · doi:10.1111/cdev.12372 · Cited by 324 · see citing works
Friendlessness and theory of mind: A prospective longitudinal study
Fink, E., Begeer, S., Peterson, C. C., Slaughter, V., & de Rosnay, M. (2015) · British Journal of Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjdp.12060 · Cited by 165 · see citing works
Mentalizing strategies for navigating the social world in adolescence
Guazzelli Williamson, V., & Mills, K. L. (2023) · Infant and Child Development · doi:10.1002/icd.2374 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
van der Kleij, S. W., Devine, R. T., Shapiro, L. R., Ricketts, J., & Apperly, I. (2025) · Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1037/dev0001965 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
- Authors
- Banerjee, R., Watling, D., & Caputi, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Sussex (GB)
- Royal Holloway University of London (GB)
- University of Pavia (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Banerjee, Robin
- Venue
- Child Development
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2011-11-01
- Volume
- 82
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1887-1905
- ISSN
- 0009-3920 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-8624
- OpenAlex
- W2147928258
- Cited by
- 209
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 18 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 12.85
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- figshare.com
- Licence
- Locations
- Child Development (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ArTS Archivio della ricerca di Trieste (University of Trieste https://www.units.it/) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca - Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele (submittedVersion)
- Royal Holloway Digital Repository (Royal Holloway University of London) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
- Keywords
- faux pas, theory of mind, peer rejection, peer relationships, social understanding, bidirectional relationship, children, longitudinal development
- MeSH terms
- Age Factors, Child, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Individuality, Interpersonal Relations, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Models, Psychological, Peer Group, Social Behavior, Socialization, Sociometric Techniques, Vocabulary, Comprehension, Theory of Mind
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