Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology and Health Studies, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Psychol Rep. 2022 Apr;125(2):913-936. doi: 10.1177/0033294120976631. Epub 2021 Feb 15.
Empathy refers to the capacity to experience emotions similar to those observed or imagined in another person, with the full knowledge that the other person is the source of these emotions. Awareness of one's own emotional states is a prerequisite for self-other differentiation to develop. This study investigated gender differences in empathy during adolescence and tested whether emotional self-awareness explained these differences. Two-hundred-eleven adolescents (108 girls and 103 boys) between 14 and 19 years completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) to assess empathy and emotional self-awareness, respectively. Overall, girls obtained higher scores than boys on IRI subscales like emotional concern, personal distress, and fantasy. Regarding emotional self-awareness, we found gender differences in TAS-20 scores, with girls reporting greater difficulty identifying feelings and less externally oriented thinking than boys. Difficulty identifying feelings explained the greatest personal distress experienced by girls. Lower externally oriented thinking accounted for girls' greater emotional concern and fantasy. These findings offer an insight into the role of emotional self-awareness-which is essential for self-other differentiation-as an account for gender differences in empathic abilities during adolescence. In girls, difficulty identifying feelings can impair the ability to differentiate between ones' and others' emotions, leading them to experience self-focused and aversive responses when confronted with others' suffering. Conversely, in boys, externally oriented thinking can mitigate personal distress when faced with others' discomfort.
同理心是指体验与他人观察或想象的情绪相似的能力，同时完全了解这些情绪的来源是他人。对自己情绪状态的认识是自我与他人区分发展的前提。本研究调查了青少年时期同理心的性别差异，并检验了情绪自我意识是否解释了这些差异。211 名 14 至 19 岁的青少年（108 名女孩和 103 名男孩）分别完成了人际反应指数（IRI）和多伦多述情障碍量表（TAS-20），以评估同理心和情绪自我意识。总体而言，女孩在 IRI 子量表上的得分高于男孩，如情绪关注、个人困扰和幻想。关于情绪自我意识，我们发现 TAS-20 分数存在性别差异，女孩比男孩更难识别情绪，更少外倾思维。难以识别情绪解释了女孩经历的最大个人困扰。较低的外倾思维解释了女孩更大的情绪关注和幻想。这些发现为情绪自我意识（对自我与他人区分至关重要）作为解释青春期同理心能力性别差异的作用提供了深入了解。对于女孩来说，难以识别情绪会损害区分自己和他人情绪的能力，导致她们在面对他人的痛苦时产生自我关注和厌恶的反应。相反，对于男孩来说，外倾思维可以减轻面对他人不适时的个人困扰。
