Assing Hvidt Elisabeth, Wehberg Sonja, Andersen Christina Maar, Søndergaard Jens, Larrabee Sonderlund Anders
The Research Unit for General Practice, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
Steno Diabetes Center Odense, Odense University Hospital, Denmark.
Int J Soc Psychiatry. 2024 Feb;70(1):113-121. doi: 10.1177/00207640231196751. Epub 2023 Aug 30.
Empathy is widely recognized as a multi-dimensional construct, involving emotional and cognitive components. These may cause distinct experiences and behaviors that can be both beneficial and deleterious to individuals' well-being and mental health.
We wished to examine the association between emotional and cognitive empathy of Danish university students as measured by the multidimensional Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and study major, sex, age, and parental status. Additionally, we aimed to gauge the validity of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy - Student version (JSE-S) as a measure of primarily cognitive empathy in the context of medical majors by comparing JSE-S scores with IRI cognitive scores.
In our national, cross-sectional study, conducted in October 2020, we used survey data from students in their first, third, and final study year. All students from University of Southern Denmark were invited to fill out IRI, and all medical students at Denmark's four medical educations were additionally invited to fill out the JSE-S. Associations were estimated by linear regression models.
Of 14,072 invited, 2,595 students completed the questionnaire. Health majors scored statistically significantly higher on cognitive empathy than students from other study majors. The JSE-S correlated significantly with the cognitive empathy subscales of the IRI. Furthermore, the effects found in relation to sex, age-, and parental status were significant.
Our study results show that large differences in empathy exist between university students and study majors. Overall, our results highlight (1) the relevance of investigating empathy as a multidimensional versus a global construct in young adult populations (including university students) and (2) the importance of focusing on differences in empathy across different student characteristics.
共情被广泛认为是一种多维结构，涉及情感和认知成分。这些可能会导致不同的体验和行为，对个人的幸福和心理健康既可能有益也可能有害。
我们希望研究丹麦大学生的情感共情和认知共情之间的关联（通过多维人际反应指数（IRI）进行测量），并探讨其与专业、性别、年龄和父母状况的关系。此外，我们旨在通过比较杰斐逊共情量表 - 学生版（JSE - S）得分与IRI认知得分，来评估JSE - S作为医学专业背景下主要认知共情测量工具的有效性。
在2020年10月进行的全国性横断面研究中，我们使用了来自一年级、三年级和最后一学年学生的调查数据。邀请了南丹麦大学的所有学生填写IRI，另外还邀请了丹麦四所医学院校的所有医学生填写JSE - S。通过线性回归模型估计关联。
在14072名受邀学生中，有2595名学生完成了问卷。健康专业学生在认知共情方面的得分在统计学上显著高于其他专业的学生。JSE - S与IRI的认知共情子量表显著相关。此外，在性别、年龄和父母状况方面发现的影响也很显著。
我们的研究结果表明，大学生之间以及不同专业之间在共情方面存在很大差异。总体而言，我们的结果强调了（1）在年轻成年人群体（包括大学生）中，将共情作为多维结构而非整体结构进行研究的相关性，以及（2）关注不同学生特征之间共情差异的重要性。
