Examining the relationship between executive functions and moral judgment with the mediation of theory of mind of 9-11-year-old children in Ilam city

Since there is a positive relationship between executive functions and theory of mind with moral judgment, in the current research, the aim is to investigate the relationship between executive functions and moral judgment with regard to the mediating role of theory of mind.

This descriptive-correlation study was based on structural equation modeling. The statistical population of this research was 9 to 11-year-old children of Ilam City, and 370 of them were selected by convenience sampling method. Sinha and Verma's (1971) moral judgment questionnaire, Ghamrani et al.'s (2006) theory of mind, and Barkley's (2012) executive functions were used to collect information. The data were analyzed by Spearman's correlation and structural equation modeling using SPSS version 24 and Smart PLS version 3 software.

The findings showed that there is a relationship between executive functions and moral judgment (β=0/246 % & P<0/05), executive functions and theory of mind (β=0/545 % & P<0/05), and theory of mind and moral judgment (β=0/494 % & P<0/05). Also, the mediating role of the theory of mind in the relationship between executive functions and moral judgment (β=0/269 % & P<0/05) was confirmed.

Executive function is the underlying cognitive capacity that enables and facilitates higher level cognition such as reasoning and decision making in moral situations. Also, the executive function has an effect on improving the level of the theory of mind. Therefore, in order to improve moral judgment, intervention programs that target the development of executive functions should be given more attention; Because it is possible to provide a suitable platform for improving the level of the theory of mind through the improvement of executive functions, and the improvement of the theory of mind will affect the progress of moral judgments.