The emotional core of bullying: Further evidences of the role of callous–unemotional traits and empathy

• Hierarchical regressions investigated the role of CU traits and empathy in bullying.
• Regressions were separately performed for students in grade 6th and in grade 8th.
• We accounted the part of variance explained by victimization.
• Empathy mediated the positive association between uncaring and bullying in grade 6th.
• Callousness directly and positively predicted bullying in grade 8th.

The aim of this paper was to further explore the role of callous–unemotional traits (CU) and empathy in bullying within 529 middle school children. We tried to advance limits of previous studies by accounting for a measure of victimization and considering age-related effects. Our results indicated that in younger students (mean age = 11 years and 8 months) the uncaring dimension of CU traits were positively related to bullying, but this association was completely mediated by a lack of affective empathy; in older students (mean age = 13 years and 8 months) the callous dimension of CU traits was directly related to bullying, and empathy was not associated when taking into account CU traits. The impact of CU traits on bullying in the transition from late childhood to incoming adolescence is discussed.