Beyond inhibitory control: Relationship between spatial and social skills in preschool children

Recent data suggests a link between spatial perspective taking and social skills (Erle & Topolinski, 2015, 2017; Tian et al., 2021; Xie et al., 2018). This paper aims to contribute to this line of research by examining whether preschool children who are better at spatial perspective taking, are also assessed as more skilled in psychological perspective taking by their preschool teachers, as well as more prosocial. In the current study (N = 77) with children aged 5-6 years, we show that spatial and psychological perspective taking are related, even when controlling for age, individual differences in affective processing inhibition, and motor inhibition. No gender differences were found. Results complement and extend the existing knowledge on the relationship between cognitive and social skills development.