Sandra Bosacki

Sandra Bosacki
Brock University · Faculty of Education

About

101
Publications
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2,401
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Publications

Publications (101)
Article
Full-text available
Background: Adolescence is a critical developmental period for mentalization and emotion regulation skills. Studies show that during this time, adolescents may experience greater vulnerability to challenges of mental and emotional well-being. Studies also show that self-skills, such as mentalization, self-compassion, and self-control are independen...
Article
Full-text available
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is a multifaceted ability that helps us to sense, understand, value, and effectively apply the power of emotions as a source of information, trust, creativity, and influence (Goleman, 2006; Salovey, Caruso, & Cherkasskiy, 2011). The five components (self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, motivation, and social skill)...
Article
Advanced Theory of Mind (AToM) refers to the age-related progressions in mindreading that occur in the development of theory of mind after the age of 5 years. Despite the growth in studies, AToM remains a conceptually slippery skill to test in youth and adults. To address this conundrum, this paper reports a systematic review of the literature on A...
Article
This 2-year short-term longitudinal study explored Canadian emerging adolescents’ ability to recognize emotions in others, their spontaneous descriptions of themselves and self-understandings, and their narrative and pictorial accounts of themselves engaged in leisure time activities. As part of a larger 5-year longitudinal study, this study descri...
Article
A growing body of research on theory of mind (ToM) highlights its significance for childhood social outcomes. Extending the developmental scope of this work, the current study investigated links between advanced ToM abilities and peer attachment in adolescence. Polish adolescents (16 to 18 years old; N = 302; 57.6% girls) completed two advanced ToM...
Article
Full-text available
The current study examined the roles of gender, and gender-role orientation in young adolescents’ empathetic concern. In addition, this study aimed to explore the contribution of Theory of Mind in participants’ empathetic concern. Finally, this study examined whether gender and gender-role orientation were implicated in emerging adolescents’ Theory...
Article
Past research shows most women report higher levels of empathy and gratitude than men. Although studies show relations among resilience, gratitude, and empathy, little is known on the influence of gender on the links among. The present study examined the individual differences and relations among adults’ levels of empathy, gratitude, and resilience...
Article
Full-text available
The current study examined the relationship between empathy, resilience, and gratitude. Specifically, the study investigated the potential mediating role of resilience between empathy and gratitude. The study involved 214 participants who completed the Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test-Revised (GRAT-R), the Questionnaire of Cognitive and A...
Preprint
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is a multifaceted ability that helps individuals to sense, understand, value, and effectively apply the power of emotions as a source of information, trust, creativity, and influence (Goleman, 2006; Salovey, Caruso, & Cherkasskiy, 2011). The five components (self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, motivation, and socia...
Article
Full-text available
Investigaciones anteriores muestran que la mayoría de las mujeres reportan niveles más altos de empatía y gratitud que los hombres. Aunque los estudios muestran relaciones entre resiliencia, gratitud y empatía, se sabe poco sobre la influencia del género en los vínculos entre ellos. El presente estudio examinó las diferencias individuales y las rel...
Article
Full-text available
What are the key issues regarding silence, solitude, and social cognition in young people’s lives, and their implications for education and emotional health? To answer such questions, the current paper will explore the question: How do young teens use their ability to understand other’s minds and emotions to navigate their relationships with themse...
Article
The theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to understand mental states in others. The previous research has highlighted age- and language-dependent effects during childhood and provided inconsistent data regarding the role of gender. Notably, these variables were rarely studied simultaneously among adolescents. Accordingly, this short longitudinal stu...
Conference Paper
The approach to adolescence (e.g. 8 to 12 years) is a transitional time and a gradual process in all areas of development including neurobiological and hormonal, emotional, social, moral and spiritual (Coleman, 2011; Misaildi, 2018; Patton et al., 2016). Although little is known about the complex interactions among social and cognitive factors rela...
Article
Full-text available
Irony is one of the linguistic means in which intended and expressed meaning diverge. It serves social-communicative functions, requires the understanding of the speaker's mental state and its comprehension takes place at an advanced stage of language acquisition. In the present study, we investigated 8-year old’s irony comprehension and social ski...
Article
Full-text available
Children’s emotional and mental worlds are often influenced by their experiences with companion animals. This study explored 77 (50 g; 27 b) 6- to 12-year-old children’s empathy; perceived companion animal friendship, comfort, and bonding; and mental state talk in conversations about their interactions with their companion animal. Children complete...
Article
Full-text available
Theory of Mind (ToM) or the ability to understand mental states in self and others to explain behavior continues to develop in adolescence and connects to social experiences. Research shows during adolescence, ToM may influence one’s ability to evaluate and judge one’s self-worth and their social interactions. However, few studies examine the assoc...
Article
Theory of Mind (ToM), or the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others to predict behavior is an important skill that helps adolescents to navigate through school. Building on emerging research on the cognitive and affective aspects of ToM and school engagement, this cross-sectional study explored ToM, emotion knowledge, and school e...
Article
The authors explored Canadian emerging adolescents' social and moral reasoning skills (empathy, theory of mind), and their perceptions of gratitude, self-competencies, and well-being (spiritual, emotional). As part of a larger five-year longitudinal study, the authors describe results of Year 2 (2016–2017) data from 46 ninth-grade students (33 girl...
Article
We explored Canadian adolescents', emergent adults', and adults' understandings of deception in computer mediated communication (CMC) compared to face to face (FtF). Participants between 13 and 50 years read vignettes of different types of questionable behaviour that occurred online or in real life, and were asked to judge whether deception was inv...
Article
Full-text available
This cross-sectional study examines gender-informed teachers’ and early adolescents’ reports of emotional competencies within the school setting. The sample for the current study consisted of 290 emerging adolescents (114 boys, 170 girls) recruited from 24 schools. Social-emotional competencies were assessed by students’ self-report questionnaires...
Article
This study found that children with a history of cancer had higher scores on certain measures of spirituality compared to their healthy peers. Health history was found to significantly moderate the relations among spirituality and outcome variables, such as depression and anxiety. Furthermore, parent–child dyadscancer had more highly correlated sco...
Poster
Background. Understanding the role social cognition plays in children’s peer relationships during school remains an important research topic for researchers and practitioners. Past research has shown that peer relations affect child’s attitude and behaviour (Bagwell, Coie, Terry, & Lochman, 2000; Bagwell &Schmidt, 2013). Additionally, peer relation...
Article
This study explored gender and age differences in children's perceptions of their interactions with companion animals, as represented through drawings and written descriptions. The study included 77 school-aged children (50 girls, 27 boys; aged 6 to 12 years) who attended a one-week humane education summer camp that aimed to promote positive intera...
Article
Full-text available
The ability to recursively infer the mental states of others to explain their complex behavior in ambiguous social situation may be called Advanced Theory of Mind (aToM). The relations between two components of aToM, cognitive and affective, measured on a behavioral level in 151 Polish 13-year-olds and 174 16-year-olds was examined. The role of age...
Article
Full-text available
Previous researchers who have studied children’s spirituality have often used narrow measures that do not account for the rich spiritual experiences of children within a multi-faith context. In the current study, we describe the initial stages of development of a children’s spirituality measure, in which items were derived from children’s spiritual...
Article
Early childhood educators’ (ECE) perceptions of gender roles may contribute to the development of children’s own gender-role identities. This qualitative study examined 40 Canadian female ECEs’ perceptions of gender and children’s shy, aggressive, and prosocial behaviors. Content analysis of extensive interviews revealed three themes: (1) shyness a...
Article
Full-text available
Recent research suggests that social cognitive abilities, particularly the theory of mind (ToM), play a role in the development of persuasion in early and middle childhood. This study investigated the relations between children’s intentionality understanding and early persuasive skills, especially the ability to use direct and indirect persuasive s...
Article
This study evaluated the impact of children's participation in a five-day humane education summer-camp program on the quality of their relationships with and treatment of companion animals. We measured changes from pre- to post-program in 77 children (50 girls, 27 boys) aged 6–12 years. The program promoted positive interactions between children an...
Article
This study investigated female and male early childhood educators' (ECEs) perceptions of young children's aggression and rough-and-tumble play in the Canadian early childhood classroom. Participants were drawn from a larger sample of ECEs who completed an online questionnaire regarding their perceptions of young children's behaviours in the classro...
Article
This article investigates early childhood educators’ perceptions of children’s gender-role play and the impact their cultural background plays in their gender identity and play behaviors. Through qualitative in-depth interviews, early childhood educators in Canada (n = 40) were asked questions relating to their experiences with children from variou...
Article
This study investigated the role of gender plays in the relation between children's theory of mind (ToM) and persuasion. We explored children's use of the belief information of the characters involved within a persuasive situation. In two studies, children (four- to eight-year-olds) performed a comic strip task that described a persuasive situation...
Article
Full-text available
This study explored the predictive relations among early childhood educators' years of teaching experience, personality traits, and classroom management self-efficacy belief. Participants were n = 395 early childhood educators (ECEs) from preschools and childcare centres located primarily in Ontario, Canada. Results showed positive relations betwee...
Article
This longitudinal study explored Theory of Mind (ToM), self-perceptions, and teacher ratings of peer relations of 91 children (52 females, ages 6–8 years) drawn from two schools situated in a mainly Euro-Canadian, middle socioeconomic status, semi-rural central Canadian context. ToM, self-perceptions, and teacher ratings of peer relations were asse...
Article
Shyness may play a significant role in children's socio-emotional and cognitive competence in the classroom. This qualitative study investigated elementary school teachers' perceptions of the concept of shyness in their students. In particular, we explored teachers' perceptions regarding the role that gender plays in shy children's behaviours, and...
Article
Full-text available
Children’s self-concept and theory of mind are both important factors in children’s social, cognitive and emotional development. Research on gender differences in children’s theory of mind understanding reveals contradictory findings such as higher degree of social understanding or theory of mind in girls (Villaneuva Badenes, Clemente Estevan, & Ga...
Article
This study investigated the longitudinal relations between theory of mind (ToM) understanding, self-perceptions, and perceptions of gender-role orientation in 28 school-aged children, (16 girls, 12 boys, aged 8-12 years). Theory of mind and perceptions of self were assessed at Time 1 (T1, M = 8 y 5 m) and two years later at Time 2 (T2, M = 10 y 4 m...
Article
Research suggests that social communication (verbal and non-verbal) plays a key role in students' and teachers' elementary-school experiences. Within the framework of sociocognitive developmental theory, this qualitative study investigates teachers' experiences and perceptions of children's talking and listening habits within the elementary-grade s...
Article
Full-text available
This study investigated the longitudinal relations between theory of mind (ToM) understanding and children’sdrawings of play in 26 school-aged children, (16 females, 10 males, aged 8-12 years). Theory of mind was assessedat Time 1 (T1, M = 8 y 5m) and two years later at Time 2 (T2, M =10 y 4 m), as well as children’s drawings of playactivities. Lon...
Article
Children's attributions about story characters in ambiguous and unambiguous social situations were assessed. One hundred and forty-four 6-7-year-olds and 10-11-year-olds heard about actors who slighted a recipient intentionally or for an undetermined reason and then made causal attributions about the events, an emotion attribution about the recipie...
Article
Full-text available
Recent research shows that the ability to understand the mental states of self and others [theory of mind (ToM)] develops throughout childhood into adolescence and may differ across cultures. Although links may exist between ToM understanding and other aspects of social cognition including self-concept, there remains a lack of cross-cultural studie...
Article
Early childhood educators (ECEs) have a unique perspective when discussing the gender identity and gender orientation of children of preschool age. They work with children who spend a large amount of time in parallel play in both same and mixed-gender play groups. ECEs also have the experience of working with children with diverse ethnic and cultur...
Article
Full-text available
This study explored young female and male adolescents' engagement with everyday activities involving popular music and their corresponding emotional perceptions. Sixty-six Grade 8 students (37 females, 29 males), aged 13–14 years from mostly White, English-speaking middle-class families near an urban centre in Western Canada completed a list of dai...
Article
Longitudinal relationships among theory of mind (ToM) understanding, self-perceptions, and perceptions of humor were explored in 28 school-aged children. Theory of mind, perceptions of self, and of humor in self and other were assessed at Time 1 and 2 years later at Time 2. Longitudinal findings showed significant correlations between T2 humor-self...
Article
The author investigated the longitudinal relations between theory of mind (ToM) understanding and perceptions of self and social conversations in 17 school-aged children (12 girls, 5 boys, age 8-12 years). ToM was assessed at Time 1 (T1; M age = 8 years 5 months, SD = 8.7 months, and perceptions of self and conversational experiences assessed two y...
Article
Childhood shyness plays an important role in terms of learning and socialization and can have profound effects on individuals' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that can carry over into adulthood. The present study investigated how self-identified childhood shyness might influence elementary school teachers' current perceptions of shyness among the...
Article
Recent research suggests that social cognition may play a role in the connections among gendered experiences of teasing within the grade school classroom. Within the framework of social-cognitive developmental theory, this qualitative research study investigates how gender may influence young children’s experiences and perception of teasing within...
Article
Full-text available
Few researchers have explored children’s understandings of spirituality. Thus, Canadian children from different religious, spiritual and cultural backgrounds were asked open-ended questions concerning their spiritual thoughts, beliefs and experiences. Parents of participants completed a demographic questionnaire and reported children’s religious af...
Article
Given existing gendered stereotypic assumptions regarding shyness and children's school competencies, this study explored relations among socioemotional competencies, self-perceptions, and receptive vocabulary in shy children. Ninety-one Canadian children (52 girls, 39 boys; 5-8 years) were classified as shy (n = 26) based on teachers' behavioural...
Chapter
Given the complexity surrounding the concept of ambiguity, this chapter aims to provide a roadmap to some of the meanings and definitions of personal and social ambiguities within the context of adolescent and education. That is, to explore the question of what ambiguity mean to adolescents, this chapter explores the multiple meanings and definitio...
Chapter
How do we help young people make sense and meaning out of ambiguity and uncertainty during the transition between childhood and adolescence? How do we encourage youth to develop effective skills to help navigate through the culture of ambiguity during early adolescence? Given the increased recent surge in research on social cognition, the focus rem...
Chapter
This chapter builds on the previous chapters in that it will discuss how the current research findings help to further advance developmental theory regarding the personal and social lives of adolescents. That is, how do the theories and empirical evidence findings discussed in Chapters 1 and 2 further the discourse on current educational and develo...
Chapter
In this chapter, I will provide a critical overview and discussion of past and current research on psychological understanding in early and middle adolescence. This chapter contains an outline of theories and research that support the notion that adolescents may begin to experience self and social ambiguity differently from younger children and adu...
Article
Full-text available
Research suggests that self-control or self-regulation may play a role in the connections among spirituality, health, well-being, and social behavior. Within the framework of social-cognitive developmental theory, we explore the question of how do children and adolescents learn to think of themselves as gendered and spiritual beings within the cont...
Article
This study explored teachers' perceptions of shy children in the classroom during the elementary school grades. Seven teachers (1 male, 6 female) from elementary schools located in geographically diverse areas of Canada participated in semistructured telephone interviews that explored their perceptions of and experiences with shy children in the cl...
Article
Full-text available
The primary goal of the present study was to examine elementary teachers' strategies, attitudes, and beliefs regarding hypothetical shy (i.e., quiet), exuberant (i.e., overly talkative), and average (i.e., typical) children. We explored whether these strategies and beliefs varied as a function of the gender of the hypothetical child as well as teac...
Article
Many studies have examined associations between children's theory of mind and social behavior with familiar peers, but to date none have examined how theory of mind might relate to behavior toward unfamiliar peers in a play setting. Forty-four 4-year-olds (21 girls, 23 boys) participated in standard theory-of-mind tasks and in a play session with 3...
Article
Four-, 5-, and 7-year-olds (N = 60) listened to vignettes featuring characters that wanted to do actions that conflicted with parental rules. Desires included behaviors associated with the personal domain: friend, activity, and clothing choice. Scenarios involving moral rules served as a comparison. Children predicted and explained characters' acti...
Article
The paper analyzed children’s perceptions of teasing within their real world peer relationships through participants’ drawings and accompanying narratives. The case study research was approached from an ethic of listening to children to discover and uncover children’s perceptions and experiences with the phenomenon of peer teasing. Fifteen children...
Article
Drawn from a larger study of Canadian children’s sense of self and media habits, this study explores the role of religiosity and/or spirituality within 535 children’s (281 girls, 254 boys; 5–13 years of age) self‐reported media preferences and habits over a three‐year period. Results indicate that the theme of spirituality and/or religiosity emerge...
Article
Most recently, considerable attention has been focused on the social construction of knowledge and an internalist, first‐person perspective on learning. Included in this paradigm shift is a particular ‘hybrid’ of both psychology and educational theory often referred to as ‘theory of mind’ (ToM research) or folk psychology. This article outlines mod...
Article
This article draws on a larger study of Canadian children's sense of self and media habits, 223 children in all (112 boys, 111 girls; 10- to 13-year-olds; M = 11.17y). Participants completed a questionnaire on their self-descriptions and reading habits over a 3-year period. Content analysis of the responses showed great diversity in preadolescents'...
Article
This study investigates the relations between children's perceptions of self and play in 89 school-aged children (52 girls, 37 boys, ages 5 to 8) in two Canadian schools. The study involves standardized measures, interviews, and drawings to assess children's perceptions of play and self. Teacher ratings of emotional competencies were also collected...
Article
This study examined whether self‐esteem mediated the association between peer relationships and internalizing problems (i.e., depression and social anxiety). A total of 7290 (3756 girls) adolescents (ages 13–18 years) completed self‐report measures of peer relationships, including direct and indirect victimization, social isolation, friendship atta...
Article
This study explored gendered relations between children's self-perceptions and emotion understanding. Ninety-one children (52 girls, 39 boys; 5–8 years) completed self-report self-perception measures and participated in individual interviews to assess three dimensions of self-understanding (continuity, agency, distinctiveness) and emotion understan...
Article
Based on the conceptualization of successful development as the joint maximization of desirable outcomes and minimization of undesirable outcomes (Baltes, 1997), the present study examined connections between adolescent non-involvement in multiple risk behaviors and positive developmental status. Results from a survey of 7290 high school students w...
Article
This paper reports on a study in which observation, stimulated recall and semi structured interviews were used to report on children's knowledge and understanding of computer processes. It suggests a model for identifying stages in pupils' understanding ...
Article
The present study examined psychosocial risk factors that differentiated direct and indirect bully-victims from bullies, victims and uninvolved adolescents. A total of 7,290 (3,756 girls) students (ages 13–18 yr) from a region of Southern Ontario, Canada, completed a number of self-report measures to determine the relation between direct and indire...
Article
This cross-sectional study explored the role of age and socioeconomic status (SES) in relation to children's popular musical preferences. As part of a larger, multi-method, longitudinal study on children's and adolescents’ self-views and media preference, the present study investigated the popular music section of a self-report questionnaire. Data...
Article
This study investigates children's understanding of school bullying and victimization as represented through drawings, narratives and open‐ended qualitative questions. Eighty‐two children (8–9‐year‐olds, n = 30, M = 8;7; 10–11‐year‐olds, n = 18, M = 10;7; and 11–12‐year‐olds, n = 34, M = 11;9) from a mainly Euro‐Canadian, mid‐socioeconomic city in...
Article
Full-text available
In this study we explored a triad partnership among preservice department instructors and teacher candidates, community practitioners, and partners in a community-university research alliance (CURA). All partners were interviewed about their perceptions of their role in the partnership, the effectiveness of the collaboration, and the key lessons le...
Article
The study of educational innovations has become increasingly important in education research as many countries around the world have embarked on education reforms that aim to change both the goals and practices in education. There is also a general expectation ...
Article
Full-text available
In recent years, practitioner research has gained prominence in academic literature and in graduate programs. This has led to increased attention to the ethical complexities of research that interconnects with professional practice. Many practitioner-researchers struggle to plan research that simultaneously satisfies their intellectual curiosity, t...
Article
Currently, few studies address kindergartners' perceptions and understandings of bullying. This study describes 15 Canadian kindergartners' graphic and narrative representations (drawings and stories) of their bullying experiences. Content analysis of the students' drawings and stories explored how they perceived bullying within the context of thei...
Article
This study examined individual differences in the relations among preadolescents' sociomoral understanding and self-understanding, teacher and peer ratings of school behavior. Two hundred and thirty-nine preadolescents (M = 11.9 years; 127 girls and 112 boys) completed tasks concerning perceptions of competence, vocabulary, and peer-rated social co...
Article
Drawing on recent studies of Canadian preadolescent girls and boys, this article considers how preadolescents' narratives can further our understanding of their spirituality and sense of self. This article reflects on how these often unheard voices might inform future research and education issues such as the role of teacher, pedagogy and curriculu...
Article
Theory of mind (ToM) underlies the ability to attribute mental states to people as a way of understanding their social behaviour. Although ToM development is an active area of research, most empirical investigations focus on infants and young children. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to assess ToM in preadolescents and to determine whethe...
Article
'Adolescents' spirituality' has emerged as a lively focus for discussion and research amongst both academics and practitioners. Yet remarkably little reference has been made to conceptions of the child provided by developmental educational psychology. To gain a holistic perspective of how preadolescents construct their sense of self, cultural meani...
Article
Full-text available
The investigation of the ability to attribute mental states to others and to see them as the basis for people's actions has been referred to as "theory of mind" (ToM) research. This study assessed ToM, or social understanding, in preadolescents and examined individual differences in the relations among social understanding, self-concept, and langua...
Article
This article compares and contrasts experiential and holistic education and suggests some points of entry where basic principles of holistic education could serve to enhance the conceptual foundations of the philosophy of experiential education. The article begins by comparing three curriculum orientations: transmission (back-to-basics education),...
Article
Drawing on research in Canada and the UK, this article considers how preadolescents' narratives can further our understanding of their spirituality and sense of self. Exposing the problems of identifying a 'preadolescent', this article reflects on how these often unheard voices might inform future research and education issues such as the role of t...
Article
Within the fields of educational and developmental psychology, interest has grown concerning the question of how cognitive and socioemotional processes work together to construct pathways for the self. In particular, researchers and educators have become increasingly interested in the role that the school plays in children's self-development. Accor...

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