Moudatsou Maria, Stavropoulou Areti, Alegakis Athanasios, Philalithis Anastas, Koukouli Sofia
Department of Social Work, Hellenic Mediterranean University, 714 10 Heraklion, Greece.
Department of Nursing, University of West Attica, 122 43 Athens, Greece.
Healthcare (Basel). 2021 Feb 17;9(2):219. doi: 10.3390/healthcare9020219.
The aim of the study was twofold: (a) to examine the way in which professional social workers perceive and apply in their practice the concept of empathy; (b) to explore sociodemographic factors, education/special training and work characteristics associated with their empathic skills. This is a cross-sectional study with a purposive sample of 203 Greek social workers. For the assessment of empathy, the Empathy Scale for Social Workers (ESSW) was used. The sample consisted mainly of female social workers with a mean age of 43.8 years. More than 70% of them were practicing the profession for more than 10 years. Nearly one-third participated in psychotherapy courses, and only half of them have been certified. On average, they reported high levels of empathy. Initial univariate analyses showed that empathy scores were significantly higher for older social workers, married, the more experienced, those who referred to working experience with disabled people or people having problems with substance use and the professionals who had obtained a certification in psychotherapy. 'Having a middle work experience of 10-19 years' was a significant correlate in all scales and related negatively to empathy indicating a burnout effect. The implications for social work education and future training are discussed.
（a）考察专业社会工作者在实践中理解和应用同理心概念的方式；（b）探究与他们的同理心技能相关的社会人口统计学因素、教育/特殊培训和工作特征。这是一项横断面研究，以203名希腊社会工作者为目的抽样样本。为评估同理心，使用了社会工作者同理心量表（ESSW）。样本主要由女性社会工作者组成，平均年龄为43.8岁。其中超过70%的人从事该职业超过10年。近三分之一的人参加过心理治疗课程，且只有一半获得了认证。平均而言，他们报告的同理心水平较高。初步单变量分析表明，年龄较大的社会工作者、已婚者、经验更丰富者、提及有与残疾人或有药物使用问题者的工作经历者以及获得心理治疗认证的专业人员的同理心得分显著更高。“有10 - 19年的中等工作经验”在所有量表中都是一个显著的相关因素，且与同理心呈负相关，表明存在倦怠效应。文中讨论了对社会工作教育和未来培训的启示。
