Mentalizing Emotions and Social Cognition in Bullies and Victims

Maria Luisa Pedditzi, Roberta Fadda, Tricia Striano Skoler and Loredana Lucarelli
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Maria Luisa Pedditzi: Department of Pedagogy, Psychology, Philosophy, University of Cagliari, 09124 Cagliari, Italy
Roberta Fadda: Department of Pedagogy, Psychology, Philosophy, University of Cagliari, 09124 Cagliari, Italy
Tricia Striano Skoler: Department of Psychology, Hunter College of the City University of New York, New York, NY 10065, USA
Loredana Lucarelli: Department of Pedagogy, Psychology, Philosophy, University of Cagliari, 09124 Cagliari, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 4, 1-13

Abstract: Mentalizing is the ability to represent mental states to navigate the social world. A reduced mentalizing ability is a risk factor for a variety of psychological issues. Several studies indicated deficits in social cognition in bullies and victims, specifically in mentalizing anger. However, only a few studies investigated mentalizing abilities related to both anger and happiness in pre-adolescence. Our study investigated possible differences in the ability to mentalize anger and happiness in preadolescent bullies and victims, compared to a control group. We interviewed 104 preadolescents (44% males; 56% females; M = 13.2 years; SD = 0.82) and administered the Olweus Questionnaire to identify bullies and victims. We applied a narrative approach to investigate the mental state language referred to anger and happiness. The results indicated a reduced ability to mentalize anger in bullies and victims compared to controls. Both bullies and victims tended to consider anger and happiness predominantly as behavioral conditions rather than a state of mind. These results highlight the need to promote effective intervention programs to prevent bullying by enhancing appropriate mentalization of emotions in pre-adolescents.

Keywords: theory of mind; mentalization; bullying; emotional competence; social cognition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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