Cognitive and emotional predictors of relational aggression: The role of the ability to understand emotions, emotional empathy and hostility. Preliminary report.

Relational aggressiveness refers to actions focused on harming others through destroying their social relations, manipulating their social inclusion/exclusion, and threatening their social status (Crick i Grotpeter, 1995). Among predictors of relational aggressiveness are empathic responding and hostility (Loudin, Lukas i Robinson, 2003). Relational aggressiveness, empathy and hostility are connected with processing of social and emotional information. Processing of emotional information depends on the ability to understand emotions in others (Salovey i Meyer, 1990). The current research (n = 147; n = 143) explored the relationship between relational aggressiveness, understanding of emotions, empathic concern, personal distress, empathy, and hostility. There was confirmed the negative correlation between emotion understanding and relational aggressiveness. There was also proposed and initially confirmed a model of relations between emotion understanding and relational aggressiveness, mediated by personal distress and hostility. Emotion understanding appeared to moderate relation between empathic concern and relational aggression. peerReviewed publishedVersion