Being visible or being liked? Social status and emotional skills in bullying among young children

Children’s behaviours during bullying episodes are associated with both interpersonal-situational variables (e.g., social status indices) and personal-dispositional variables (e.g., emotional competence). The aim of the present study was to investigate–in a group of 202 kindergarteners (age range: 3–6 years)–the relationships between participants’ roles in bullying and their: 1) empathy and emotion comprehension skills; 2) social preference and social impact, while also examining the effects of their sex and age. Our main finding was that prosocial behaviours were positively related to social preference status and emotional skills; while hostile behaviours were negatively related to social preference status and positively related to social impact. Outsiders had low social impact among peers and poor emotional skills. Children who experienced victimization more frequently were markedly the least preferred in the peer group. We conclude that social impact and social preference are separate factors and play distinct roles in peer relationships from early childhood onwards.