Abstract
This study examined emotion understanding (as assessed by the Test of Emotion Comprehension; Pons, Harris, & DeRosnay, 2004) and motor skills (as assessed by the Movement Assessment Battery for Children; Henderson, Barnett, & Sudgen, 2007) as predictors of children’s understanding of faux pas (Banerjee, Watling, & Caputi, 2011). Faux paus situations are those in which someone causes unintentional offence or behaves inappropriately. Understanding of faux pas requires knowledge of social norms in specific situations as well as emotion understanding. Misunderstanding faux pas can prevent smooth social functioning. Fifty-six children (aged 7;0 to 9;11 years) completed a measure of faux pas understanding, emotion understanding, and motor skills. Children’s faux pas understanding, emotion understanding, and motor skills were all related to each other. However, when age, motor skills, and emotion understanding were entered into a regression to predict faux pas understanding, only motor skills predicted understanding of faux pas. The findings are discussed in relation to potential pathways between motor skills and social understanding.