The Comparison of Theory of Mind in Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Sluggish Cognitive Tempo

this study aimed to compare theory of mind and its levels in children with Attention Deficit/ Hyper Activity Disorder (ADHD) and Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT). The study was descriptive in the frame of Casual Comparative design. Participants comprised 100 boys (50 ADHD and 50 SCT) from elementary schools in Tabriz in the 1398-1399 academic year, which were selected through a screening method using the Child Behavior Rating Scale (Swanson, Nolan, & Pelham, 1980) and the Sluggish Cognitive Tempo Scale (Penny, Waschbusch, Klein, Corkum, & Eskes, 2009). Then, Theory of Mind Test (Muris, et al, 1999) was performed on samples to measure theory of mind. Data was analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance. The results showed that there is a significant difference between the two groups in theory of mind. So that children with SCT had poorer performances in theory of mind in all three levels than children with ADHD. Based on the findings of this study, it seems that since children with SCT have little interest in social interactions and suffer from attention problems simultaneously, they have poorer performances in theory of mind than children with ADHD.