Search Results (27)

Background/Objectives: Empathy is a core competency in nursing, contributing to patient care quality and professional resilience. This study investigated empathy levels among Greek undergraduate nursing students at the University of Peloponnese and examined the personal and educational factors that contribute to empathic development. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 144 students from all academic years using the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy—Health Professions (JSPE-HP) and the SF-12 Health Survey. Data were analyzed using ANOVA and stepwise multiple linear regression. Results: Mean empathy scores were relatively high (M = 110.31, SD = 10.52). Empathy increased significantly with academic progression (p < 0.001), and higher scores were associated with parental status (p = 0.030) and better mental health (p = 0.044). Conversely, students with a chronically ill close contact reported lower empathy (p = 0.018). Regression analysis identified having children and exposure to chronic illness as significant predictors. Conclusions: Educational progression, life experience, and well-being are key contributors to empathy development. These insights support strategies to enhance empathy through curriculum design, student support, and wellness programs. Integrating empathy training into management policy can foster professional growth, reduce burnout, and improve patient care and workforce sustainability. Full article

Examining remote virtual audiences is a vital part of understanding social experiences in modern human–computer interaction contexts. Doing so raises intriguing questions about how these mediated connections relate to emotional and physiological states. The vagus nerve is central to socioemotional processing and physiological well-being, with its activation represented as vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV). We examine how participants’ social connectedness to virtual partners relates to their experience of socioemotional competences and psychophysiological states while observing streamed gameplay. In this experimental study with 48 participants, we compared self-reported empathy, empathic concern, and continuously measured vmHRV (from a PPG sensor) during different types of gameplay. The results revealed that viewers who felt greater social connectedness to remote partners also felt more empathic concern (quantitative detail) and had significantly heightened vmHRV (quant detail) across all conditions compared to those who felt lower connectedness. These findings reveal that stronger feelings of connectedness to remote partners are associated with enhanced socioemotional competences and physiological well-being. This research highlights the intertwined nature of social connectedness, empathy, and physiological health, providing valuable insights for designing virtual platforms that foster deeper interpersonal connections and promote well-being. Full article

This study aimed to explore the nature of contextual differences in child–parent attachment relationships and examine how these experiences relate to children’s psychological outcomes. A theoretically informed qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 15 participants across four groups of Taiwanese youths and parents, representing different contextual attachment combinations. Data were analyzed using a hybrid thematic analysis approach, integrating both inductive and deductive methods. The findings revealed two key characteristics of secure attachment across contexts: (1) parental timely and sensitive responsiveness enhances children’s openness to share personal thoughts, and (2) parental empathic and genuine concern fosters children’s empathy. Conversely, insecure attachment across contexts was marked by (1) inappropriate parental responses reducing children’s willingness to share their inner feelings, and (2) parental lack of empathy frustrating children and discouraging communication. In addition, parental beliefs about children’s achievement behaviors (e.g., expectation primarily centered on academic achievement and viewing athletic achievement as an alternative pathway to higher education) and parenting practices (e.g., performance- vs. mastery-oriented achievement goals, conditional negative regard, and psychological control through invalidating feelings and demeaning the child) significantly influenced children’s psychological outcomes, particularly in terms of basic psychological needs satisfaction and frustration (autonomy and competence) across academic and sports domains. These findings advance our theoretical understanding of contextual attachment dynamics and provide practical insights for fostering optimal parenting strategies, particularly in academic and sport-related contexts. Full article

According to the literature, recent world events seem to play a significant influence in the acquisition and upgrowth of empathy and socio-emotional competencies (SEC), especially in adolescents. In this study we sought to assess the level of socio-emotional competencies and interpersonal reactivity of Portuguese adolescents in today’s context and analyze differences due to sex, relationship status, residence, and educational level on the dimensions of inter-personal reactivity and socio-emotional competencies. Participants were 230 adolescents of both sexes, living in Portugal, with ages between 16 and 18 years old, mostly female, with a secondary educational level, living in an urban area, and not in a relationship. An online questionnaire was applied using the Social and Emotional Competencies (SEC-Q) scale and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). The results were that adolescents had an above-average global interpersonal reactivity, with empathic concern and perspective-taking presenting the higher values. Adolescents showed a medium-high average level of SEC, with the highest domains being self-awareness, social awareness, and pro-social behavior. Girls showed significantly more interpersonal reactivity in empathic concern, personal distress, and fantasy, and boys presented more self-awareness. As for the relationship status, adolescents not in a relationship manifested more personal distress, while those in a relationship presented higher values in all dimensions of SEC. Neither residence, nor educational level, presented significant main effects. These results can contribute to thinking about youth protection policies and designing more appropriate interventions to promote well-being in this crucial period of life, especially in times of change. Full article

The term “empathic accuracy” has been applied to people’s ability to infer the contents of other people’s minds—that is, other people’s varying feelings and/or thoughts over the course of a social interaction. However, despite the ease of intuitively linking this skill to competence in helping professions such as counseling, the “empathic” prefix in its name may have contributed to overestimating its association with prosocial traits and behaviors. Accuracy in reading others’ thoughts and feelings, like many other skills, can be used toward prosocial—but also malevolent or morally neutral—ends. Prosocial intentions can direct attention towards other people’s thoughts and feelings, which may, in turn, increase accuracy in inferring those thoughts and feelings, but attention to others’ thoughts and feelings does not necessarily heighten prosocial intentions, let alone outcomes. Full article

Parental burnout refers to exhaustion caused by the parenting role. This devastating negative emotion can have repercussions for adolescent social development. Nevertheless, much remains unclear about the association between parental burnout and adolescent prosocial behavior and the potential mechanisms underlying this relationship. Based on theoretical and empirical evidence, the current study examined the relationship between parental burnout and adolescent prosocial behavior by using a sequential mediation model that included both parental empathy and adolescent empathy as potential mediators. A total of 488 parent–adolescent dyads (for adolescents: 45.7% men, 54.3% women, M_age = 15.28 ± 1.67 years; for parents: 36.5% fathers, 63.5% mothers, M_age = 41.30 ± 3.79 years) completed questionnaires regarding demographics, social desirability, parental burnout, parental empathy, adolescent empathy, and adolescent prosocial behavior. After controlling for demographic covariates and social desirability, the results showed that parental burnout had a negative effect on adolescent-reported prosocial behavior through parental cognitive empathy and adolescent other-oriented empathy (adolescent cognitive empathy and empathic concern) sequentially. These findings contribute to our understanding of the role of parental burnout as a family environmental factor detrimental to the positive functioning of adolescents through parental reactions to their children’s emotions and children’s own social competence. Full article

Aging involves several changes depending on genetic and behavioral factors, such as lifestyle and the number and quality of social relationships, which in turn can be influenced by empathy. Here, the change in the perceived social support across the lifespan as a function of empathy was investigated, considering the mediating role of empathy after controlling for gender and education. In total, 441 people (18–91 years old) filled in the Italian short version of the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL-12), the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ6), as well as the Empathy Questionnaire (EQ), and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (RMET). The mediation analyses with ISEL-12 showed that age and the EQ fully mediated the relationship between age and appraisal, belonging, and tangible scores. Further, the EQ fully mediated only the relationship between age and SSQ6-People. These results showed that empathic skills are key in the relationships between age and social support. This suggests that empathy can trigger social support and, ultimately, well-being if stimulated across the lifespan, especially from a young age; this would help to form the socio-emotional competence across the years as a sort of cushion that can be useful in the older to fulfill active aging. Full article

Effective patient-centered communication is a foundational skill for student pharmacists, with recent decades broadening the scope of professional responsibilities to include an increased emphasis on empathic communication and motivational interviewing (MI) as tools to support patients’ therapeutic adherence. Role-play is a potentially effective pedagogical approach to cultivate these skills, although previous research has identified common shortcomings that can hinder its educational value, particularly in peer role-play with relatively inexperienced learners. The purpose of this study is to describe and provide initial assessment data for an innovative approach to peer role-play that incorporates pedagogical principles to address these common shortcomings. Using a mixed-methods study design that includes instructor-graded rubrics and inductive thematic analysis of student reflections, our findings indicate that students successfully demonstrated a range of important competencies through this experience and perceived it to be both challenging and highly beneficial for their personal and professional development. Among the MI principles and techniques practiced, students performed especially well on expressing empathy and frequently reflected on its importance for future patient care and clinical collaborations. Our findings also suggest that peer engagement through team activities and partnered role-play provides a felicitous context to explore empathic communication together. Full article

This study aimed to use the Alexa vocal assistant as an administerer of psychometric tests, assessing the efficiency and validity of this measurement. A total of 300 participants were administered the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). After a week, the administration was repeated, but the participants were randomly divided into groups of 100 participants each. In the first, the test was administered by means of a paper version; in the second, the questionnaire was read to the participants in person, and the operator contemporaneously recorded the answers declared by the participants; in the third group, the questionnaire was directly administered by the Alexa voice device, after specific reprogramming. The third group was also administered, as a post-session survey, the Engagement and Perceptions of the Bot Scale (EPVS), a short version of the Communication Styles Inventory (CSI), the Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MCSDS), and an additional six items to measure degrees of concentration, ease, and perceived pressure at the beginning and at the end of the administration. The results confirmed that the IRI did keep measurement invariance within the three conditions. The administration through vocal assistant showed an empathic activation effect significantly superior to the conditions of pencil–paper and operator-in-presence. The results indicated an engagement and positive evaluation of the interactive experience, with reported perceptions of closeness, warmth, competence, and human-likeness associated with higher values of empathetic activation and lower values of personal discomfort. Full article

School-based bullying is a major global social problem affecting societies around the world. It is argued that Virtual Reality (VR) offers benefits and possibilities in social work education. Within this context, a study was carried out with the aim of analysing students’ experiences with a school-based bullying scenario through Head-Mounted Display Virtual Reality (HMD VR), and exploring the pedagogical potential of this technology to support the enhancement of cultural empathy in international social work education. Using cultural competence and social constructivist perspectives focused on empathy theory, this article addresses the following research questions: How do the research participants describe experiencing the bullying scene with HMD VR? How do the research participants account for their HMD VR experiences in connection with empathy? How can the pedagogical use of HMD VR enhance international social work students’ cultural empathic skills? Data for the study were gathered through four Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with 38 volunteer research participants based on their postexposure to a scenario on school-based bullying through HMD VR. ATLAS.ti v.23 software (Atlas.ti, Berlin, Germany) was used to undertake a deductive thematic analysis. The findings reveal that HMD VR plays an important role in enhancing different dimensions of empathy, which is an essential element in transformative learning in social work education. The overall implications of using HMD VR in international social work education for enhancing cultural empathy are discussed. The article concludes that HMD VR has a promising role; however, several ethical, practical, and pedagogical aspects need to be considered for this technology tool to provide the sought-after pedagogical value in social work education. Full article

This study aimed to develop and examine the effects of a nonviolent communication empathy education program, based on a cyclical empathy model of self-esteem, empathic ability, interpersonal relationships, and communication competency for nursing students. Participants were first-grade nursing students from two different colleges in Korea. There were 62 participants: 32 and 30 in the experimental and control groups, respectively. The experimental group received six sessions of 120 min each. The sessions were based on nonviolent communication content and utilized teaching methods such as lectures, presentations, personal activities, group activities, role plays, assignments, and reflective journals. The data were analyzed with percentage, χ²-test, Fisher’s Exact test, and a two-group independent means t-test using the SPSS 24.0 program. There were significant increases in self-esteem (t = 4.06, p < 0.001), empathic ability (t = 5.22, p < 0.001), interpersonal relationships (t = 5.14, p < 0.001), and communication competency (t = 5.27, p < 0.001) in the experimental group compared to the control group. Therefore, a nonviolent communication empathy education program based on the cyclical empathy model is expected to be useful for the humanities and social education in a nursing curriculum. Furthermore, it can improve human nursing competency based on multidimensional empathy in clinical settings. Full article

Design thinking is regarded as an essential way to cultivate 21st century competency and there has been a concomitant rise of needs and interest in introducing K-12 students to design thinking. This study aimed to review high-qualified empirical studies on design thinking integrated learning (DTIL) in K-12 education and explore its future research perspectives. After a systematic search in online database via a keyword search and snowballing approach, 43 SSCI journal papers with 44 studies were included in this review. The results indicate that: (1) There has been a growing popularity of integrating design thinking into K-12 education over the past decade, and most empirical studies target middle school students with small group size and a short period; (2) Studies tend to pay more attention to STEM related curriculum domains by incorporating non-unified design thinking models or processes, and the core concepts of design thinking in K-12 education have been frequently valued and pursued including prototype, ideate, define, test, explore, empathize, evaluate, and optimize; (3) The mostly evaluated learning performances are design thinking, followed by emotional/social aspect, subject learning performance and skill. For evaluation, qualitative assessments are used more frequently with instruments like survey/questionnaire, portfolio, interview, observation, protocol analysis, etc. (4) interventions with non-experimental study, formal classroom setting, collaborative learning, and traditional tools or materials have been mainly applied to the open-ended and challenging activities in real situated DTIL. Overall, the 43 papers suggest that design thinking shows great educational potential in K-12 education, however, the empirical evidence that supports the effectiveness of DTIL is still rather limited. Research gaps and future directions derived from reviewed papers are also discussed. Full article

Does engineering design education in North America prepare students to address the major issues of our time? In today’s political and social climate, engineers are part of multi-disciplinary teams tasked with finding solutions to complex issues like poverty, climate change, the housing affordability crisis, resource depletion, and water shortages. By definition, these problems are “wicked”. If engineers are to play a role in addressing issues that exist at the intersection of technology and society, they must have a deep understanding of both technical competencies and of human factors. They must have the ability to empathize. In consideration of today’s social, political, and environmental challenges, it has never been more important to instill social competencies into engineering education and practice, particularly around engineering design. This paper analyzes the previous literature on empathy in engineering education in North America and synthesizes the data to present the conceptualization that engineers have of empathy in education and practice. Full article

The current article describes the validation of the Attitudes towards Maghrebis in Education (AMES) scale in the Spanish context and examines the relation with other psychosocial variables. A Spanish sample of 807 participants aged between 18 and 80 years old completed the AMES. The analyses were performed using CFA, mainly considering the statistical indices of CFI, RMSEA and Pearson’s correlation. The external validity of the scale was tested using measures, such as social dominance orientation (SDO), empathic concern, warmth, competence and contact with Maghrebis. The results indicated that the AMES showed an adequate fit to the data. The AMES was found to be negatively correlated with SDO, whereas it was correlated positively with the rest of the variables. The results demonstrate that the AMES can be used as a reliable measure to evaluate attitudes towards Maghrebi migrants in education in Spain. The implications of the psychosocial variables studied are discussed as possible factors to consider for promoting more intercultural socio-educational environments. Full article

Rapid progress in humanoid robot investigations offers possibilities for improving the competencies of people with social disorders, although this improvement of humanoid robots remains unexplored for schizophrenic people. Methods for creating future multimodal emotional data for robot interactions were studied in this case study of a 40-year-old male patient with disorganized schizophrenia without comorbidities. The qualitative data included heart rate variability (HRV), video-audio recordings, and field notes. HRV, Haar cascade classifier (HCC), and Empath API^© were evaluated during conversations between the patient and robot. Two expert nurses and one psychiatrist evaluated facial expressions. The research hypothesis questioned whether HRV, HCC, and Empath API^© are useful for creating future multimodal emotional data about robot–patient interactions. The HRV analysis showed persistent sympathetic dominance, matching the human–robot conversational situation. The result of HCC was in agreement with that of human observation, in the case of rough consensus. In the case of observed results disagreed upon by experts, the HCC result was also different. However, emotional assessments by experts using Empath API^© were also found to be inconsistent. We believe that with further investigation, a clearer identification of methods for multimodal emotional data for robot interactions can be achieved for patients with schizophrenia. Full article