Impact Factors of Empathy in Mainland Chinese Youth

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Qing Zhao¹  Qiaoyue Ren²  Yuanmiao Sun²  Li Wan¹  Li Hu¹ 

[1] Department of Pain Management, The State Key Clinical Specialty in Pain Medicine, Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University;CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences;Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

关键词: empathy;    medical training;    Interpersonal Reactivity Index;    Classification and Regression Tree analysis;    personal distress;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00688

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Empathy was investigated in 592 Mainland Chinese youth using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Participants’ empathy-related information covering demographic traits, emotional wellness, as well as academic and social problems were recorded. Results of Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis showed that emotional empathy, cognitive empathy, and empathy-related personal distress was impacted by inherited traits (e.g., sex), acquired traits (e.g., study major), and a combination of both aspects, respectively. Moreover, empathy was found to be higher in youth in a vulnerable social position (i.e., outlander, female, and ethnic minority) than those in a dominant one (i.e., local, male, and ethnic majority). It was also found that personal distress, rather than empathy, was significantly correlated with academic, social, and emotional problems in the youth cohort. Hence, the current study provided an innovative observation of the relationships between empathy, personal distress, ethnicity, social vulnerability, wellness, study major, and other key characteristics in Mainland Chinese youth.

【 授权许可】

CC BY