Prosocial/hostile roles and emotion comprehension in preschoolers

Bullying occurs at approximately the same rate in kindergarten as in elementary school, but few studies inquired into preschool years (Alsaker & Nagële, 2008; Stassen Berger, 2007). The present study aimed at: 1) verifying the presence in preschoolers of two additional participant roles (Consoler and Mediator), besides the 6 traditional roles detected by Salmivalli et al. (1996), grouped in four latent macro-roles, by means of teacher report version of the Eight Participant Role Questionnaire (Belacchi. 2008). 2) linking pro-social and hostile behaviors to age and gender; 3) investigating the relationship between roles and emotion understanding. 219 children (54% boys; aged 3 - 6 years: mean age 4;10) were administered the Italian version of the Test of Emotion Comprehension (Albanese & Molina, 2008); 20 teachers (2 for each class) filled in the questionnaire, attributing frequency scores on 24 items (3 for each role) to each pupil. A confirmatory analysis supported the fit of the hetero-report version of the Eight Participant Roles Questionnaire, revealing four macro-roles: Hostile Roles (Bully, Reinforcer and Assistant), Pro-social Roles (Defender, Consoler and Mediator) Victim and Outsider. Satisfactory inter-teachers agreement not only confirms the macro-roles hypothized, but also their expected distribution for gender and age. Moreover, the Pro-social roles presented a significant positive correlation with all sub-dimensions of emotion comprehension (External, Mental and Reflective). The Victim and Outsider roles negatively correlated only with the External sub-dimension. The implications of these results for prevention and intervention purposes are discussed.