ABSTRACT
This longitudinal study examined the associations among maternal cultural values, maternal mental state talk (MST), and preschool children’s (M
age = 51.68 months) theory of mind (ToM) across two time points 1 year apart. Participants were 119 Turkish mother–child dyads at T1 and 89 at T2. Mothers reported their endorsement of individualist and collectivist values and engaged in a joint book-reading task with their children to assess MST, while children completed a battery of ToM tasks at both waves. Results showed that stronger maternal endorsement of family values, a core dimension of collectivism, was associated with children’s lower ToM at both time points. Notably, cross-lagged analyses revealed a child-driven effect: children’s earlier advanced ToM predicted higher maternal MST 1 year later, even after controlling for prior MST, whereas higher maternal MST did not predict increased ToM 1 year later. Moreover, higher family values were indirectly associated with lower subsequent MST via children’s reduced ToM at T1. These findings highlight the dynamic and child-driven nature of mother–child interactions in the cultural context of Türkiye and suggest that strong endorsement of family values may constrain children’s exposure to diverse mental perspectives, with cascading effects on both ToM development and maternal MST.