Maternal cognition talk in the mother–toddler dyad mediates the influence of early maternal emotional availability on preschoolers' belief reasoning

The present longitudinal study of 83 mother–child dyads (40 girls) assessed how emotional availability (EA) and maternal mental state language (MSL) are related to children's first‐ and second‐order false belief understanding (FBU). EA was measured with the emotional availability scales at 7 and 50 months, maternal MSL within free play at 7 months, and within a book context at 24 months. First‐order FBU was assessed at 50 months and second‐order...