The present study aimed to investigate school-aged children’s understanding of emotions of perpetrators and targets of school bullying and whether these vary as a function of children’s participant role in a bullying episode. One hundred seventy-six boys and girls, with a mean age of 11 years and 3 months, participated in the study. They were asked to match emotions felt by the perpetrator and target in an emotional scenario and in a drawing task, while their own participant role in a bullying episode was assessed through a series of short individual scales. Results showed that overall children associated anger and happiness with the perpetrator, while sadness and fear with the target. Moreover, children’s understanding of emotions of school bullying perpetrators and targets was found to be related with their scores in Bullying, Victimization, Defender, and Assistant scales. Results are discussed in relation to their possible contribution in comprehending the dynamics of bullying, by highlighting how understanding of specific emotions of perpetrators and targets is related to involvement in bullying.
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