Department of Pedagogy, Psychology, Philosophy, University of Cagliari, 09124 Cagliari, Italy.
Department of Psychology, Hunter College of the City University of New York, New York, NY 10065, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Feb 19;19(4):2410. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19042410.
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.
心理理论是一种能够代表心理状态以适应社会世界的能力。心理理论能力的下降是各种心理问题的一个风险因素。有几项研究表明，欺凌者和受害者的社会认知存在缺陷，特别是在心理愤怒方面。然而，只有少数研究调查了与愤怒和幸福相关的心理理论能力在青春期前。我们的研究调查了青春期前欺凌者和受害者与对照组相比，在心理愤怒和幸福方面的心理理论能力可能存在的差异。我们采访了 104 名青春期前儿童（44%为男性；56%为女性；M=13.2 岁；SD=0.82），并使用奥维留斯问卷来确定欺凌者和受害者。我们采用叙事方法来研究愤怒和幸福所涉及的心理状态语言。结果表明，欺凌者和受害者与对照组相比，心理愤怒的能力有所下降。欺凌者和受害者都倾向于将愤怒和幸福主要视为行为状态，而不是心理状态。这些结果强调了需要通过增强青春期前儿童对情绪的适当心理化来促进有效的干预计划，以防止欺凌行为。
