Social cognition and competence in middle childhood.

2 aspects of social cognition--interpersonal understanding and means-ends problem-solving ability--were evaluated in fourth- to seventh-grade children and related to sex, age, IQ, social class, and multiple dimensions of competence. Results indicated that both social-cognitive components were significantly correlated with IQ, while interpersonal understanding was also correlated with age and social class. Nevertheless, interpersonal understanding and means-ends problem-solving ability made significant contributions in accounting for variance in several competence variables even after IQ and other important status variables were taken into account. Implications for social cognition research are discussed.