Research has focused on the role of theory of mind (ToM) for positive social behaviour, while the association between ToM and negative social behaviours is less well understood. This longitudinal study compares two mediation models examining the role of ToM and peer‐rated social preference at ages 5 and 6 for bullying at age 7. Participants were 114 children (58 boys, M_age = 67 months) at entry to primary school (T1). At Time 2 (T2), 106 children and, at Time 3 (T3), 96 children remained. Teacher‐rated externalizing problems and children’s language ability were controlled at T1. Poor ToM was found to indirectly predict later bullying via poor social preference, while for boys only, greater earlier ToM directly predicted greater bullying 2 years later. These results suggest that there are different pathways to bullying via ToM and social preference, which has implications for interventions to prevent the development of bullying behaviour.

中文翻译：

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欺凌行为的早期途径：一项前瞻性纵向研究，研究了心智和社会偏好理论对学校最初3年内欺凌行为的影响。

研究集中在心理理论（ToM）在积极的社会行为中的作用上，而对ToM和消极的社会行为之间的联系了解得很少。此纵向研究比较了两种调解模式研究TOM之5岁和6中的作用和对社会的额定偏好的年龄欺负7.参加者114名儿童（58名男，中号_年龄 = 67个月）。在时间2（T2），有106名儿童，在时间3（T3），仍有96名儿童。教师评估的外部化问题和儿童的语言能力在T1时得到控制。人们发现，较差的ToM通过不良的社会偏好间接预测了以后的欺凌行为，而仅对男孩而言，较早的ToM直接预测了2年后的欺凌行为。这些结果表明，存在通过ToM和社会偏好进行欺凌的不同途径，这对防止欺凌行为发展的干预措施具有影响。