Abstract
This study explores how primary school students in China and Italy express and recognize emotions with and without Covid-19 masks. Participants were 46 Italian and 99 Chinese students (aged 7-10) working in pairs, with one student demonstrating an emotion and the other guessing it by drawing and writing it down. A total of 122 valid drawings and texts were analyzed. The results showed that 83% of students without masks could recognize emotions, compared to 76% with masks. The most common emotion was happiness, indicating potential biases towards easily recognizable emotions. Younger students (7-8) were better at recognizing emotions without masks, though this advantage diminished with masks. The study highlights the challenges posed by facial coverings and the need to understand how young students experience emotions during the Covid period.