The main purpose of this study is to explore the links between five- to eight-year-old children's social understanding (or, theories of mind), comprehension of moral emotions, prosocial conduct (sharing and helping), and the quality of peer relations in the classroom. In addition to gaining a clearer picture of the developmental changes that occur in young persons' social-emotional and moral understanding, this research aims to identify the key psychological mechanisms and interpersonal constraints related to children's prosocial conduct.

Past research has shown various developmental trends in children's social, emotional, and moral growth, including the relation between changes in social perspective-taking skills and moral reasoning (Walker, 1988), perspective-taking and emotional competence (Harter, 1983) , and emotion understanding and moral conduct (Arsenio & Lover, 1995; for a review see Krettenauer et al., 2008). Importantly, contemporary work on children's theories of mind has become a place where much of this past research has been consolidated (Cassidy et al., 2003; Harris et al., 1989). The findings in this watershed literature, particularly related to children's social conduct, have been mixed, with conflicting reports on the link between emotion understanding, moral reasoning, and prosocial conduct, as well as inconsistent connections to theory of mind. For instance, findings suggest that childhood bullies may have a sophisticated conception of others' minds but an impoverished understanding of moral emotions (Sutton et al., 1999), and, conversely, those children who act in prosocial ways may or may not show a good understanding of mind (Hughes & Leekam, 2004). The present research project will continue to investigate how these important aspects of children's development are coordinated and consolidated as a function of age. Additionally, in an attempt to help understand the inconsistencies in the literature, this research will begin to examine the influences of the children's social context, specifically the quality of peer relationships in the classroom.

Preliminary findings from a similar study being conducted in British Columbia, Canada, have shown inconsistencies in children's social-emotional understanding and conduct. These inconsistencies have tended to vary according to the school that participants attend. A key difference between these schools was that some had begun to follow a new “social responsibility” curriculum aimed at promoting students' prosocial growth. Gaining a better understanding of the influences present in children's school contexts is part of the motivation in the present study to investigate the quality of students' peer relationships.