Development of digital empathy: Non-linear relationships between daily digital communication time and digital empathic tendencies

This research is related mainly to the study of the results on the development of digital literacy and digital empathy with micro-learning via activities on metaverse. The main concept of this study is based on the integration of micro-learning process with metaverse technology in order to encourage and provide learners with opportunities to create bodies of knowledge and engage in joint activities through the network system that can be accessed anywhere and anytime. The objectives of this research are (1) to synthesize the conceptual framework of the micro-learning via activities on metaverse, (2) to design the micro-learning process via activities on metaverse, and (3) to study the results of the development of digital literacy and digital empathy with the micro-learning via activities on metaverse. Thereby, this study relies on the pre-experimental research method with one-shot case study, in which the research participants are 30 undergraduate students of Pakse Teacher Training College, Lao People's Democratic Republic, who were derived by means of cluster sampling and well protected under the policy of confidentiality and anonymity. The research results show that (1) the students’ digital literacy and digital empathy, after learning with the micro-learning via activities on metaverse, are at very good level (mean = 43.20, SD = 2.35), and (2) the overall satisfaction towards the micro-learning via activities on metaverse is at high level (mean = 4.42, SD = 0.78). In reference to the above research results, it is evident that the micro-learning via activities on metaverse enables the students to quickly develop their digital literacy and digital empathy after receiving new experiences and new knowledge because the knowledge gained from the learning of this style is easy to remember and can be applied in an effective manner.

To develop innovative solutions that fit end-users, engineers must understand the end-users' needs. This user-centered aspect of engineering innovation has been highlighted in recent design thinking literature, where the construct of empathy has received increasing attention. Anecdotal support has been found for the benefits of empathy in engineering, and many engineering design thinking courses today teach engineering students to empathize with end-users. However, transitioning from anecdotal to evidence-based education requires being able to measure and track the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that educators attempt to impart on students. Thus, this study measures the development of empathic tendencies and innovation attitudes in students, and explores correlations between the two. Data was collected by administering a self-report survey in January and June 2017 to 237 students participating in a global multidisciplinary design thinking course. The survey included subscales for empathic tendencies, innovation self-efficacy, and innovation interests. The responses were analyzed for differences in distribution between the two surveys, as well as for correlations between items. It was observed that the students' empathic tendencies and confidence in experimenting and associative thinking grew (p < 0.03). Furthermore, the empathic tendency scores displayed weak but statistically significant correlation with interest towards planning and research activities (p < 0.05, τb > 0.2). This study is among the first to quantify the development of empathy and innovation attitudes in engineering education. The results indirectly repeat prior research on the development of innovation capabilities in the scope of individual engineering courses. However, there are some limitations regarding the applicability of the utilized survey instruments, thus requiring further research with larger amounts of data and a mixed-methods approach to generalize the results.

Empathy Affects Individualized Care Perception and Pain Knowledge in Nursing Students.

Purpose: The purpose of this article was to analyze virtual social interaction and empathy development in South Korea. Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: Studies in South Korea show that virtual social interactions, especially through immersive VR experiences, enhance empathy development. Programs like Our Neighbor Hero increased prosocial behavior, while high immersion and perspective-taking in VR strengthened empathetic responses. These findings highlight VR’s potential in empathy education. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Social presence theory, media richness theory &amp; social learning theory may be used to anchor future studies on the virtual social interaction and empathy development in South Korea. Educators, mental health professionals, and organizational leaders are encouraged to adopt multi-modal digital communication strategies that incorporate video conferencing, instant messaging, social media engagement, and online collaborative tools. Funding should be allocated toward research and the development of technologies that not only support mental health initiatives but also foster inclusive, empathetic digital communities

The increasing prevalence of digital media use among children and adolescents has raised concerns regarding its potential impact on cognitive and communication development. Previous research has linked higher screen exposure to poorer language outcomes; however, the mechanisms underlying these associations remain insufficiently understood, particularly with respect to pragmatic communication. The present study aimed to examine the relationships between daily screen time, executive functioning (EF), and communication-related outcomes, and to test whether EF mediates the association between digital media exposure and pragmatic communication and language performance. A cross-sectional observational study was conducted with 240 children and adolescents aged 6-15 years. Caregivers reported children's daily screen time, digital consumption and communication skills. EF was assessed using performance-based tasks measuring inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Language performance was evaluated using a standardized composite measure. Pearson correlations, mediation analyses with bootstrapped confidence intervals, and factorial analyses of variance were performed, controlling for age, sex, parental mediation, and educational content exposure. Higher daily screen time was significantly associated with lower EF, weaker pragmatic communication, and poorer language performance. EF was positively related to both pragmatic and language outcomes and partially mediated the relationship between screen time and communication measures. Educational digital content and parental mediation showed positive associations with EF and communication outcomes, whereas recreational content exhibited negative associations. Group comparisons indicated that negative associations between screen exposure and developmental outcomes were more pronounced in younger children. These findings suggest that EF may represent a key intermediary mechanism underlying the association between digital media exposure and communication-related development. The results highlight the importance of considering not only the quantity but also the quality and context of children's digital media use, particularly during early developmental stages.

Daily communications between the ICU trauma patients' families and the trauma team are often limited due to the unpredictable nature of subsequent patient admissions and operative procedures. In order to improve the lines of family-physician communication and educate residents regarding family communication, our level I trauma center instituted daily "Family Rounds" (FR). FR occur at the same time every day, in the patient's ICU room. The purpose of this study was to determine whether families valued the scheduled daily FR, to establish whether FR improved the family-physician relationship, and to delineate strengths and weaknesses of the present structure of our FR. We mailed surveys to family members of trauma patients hospitalized in the trauma ICU for > or = 3 days. A total of 55 (22%) families responded. Combining "excellent" and "good" responses, 86.5 per cent of families looked forward to having a specific time of day to meet with the trauma team, and 90 per cent liked having rounds in the ICU room with the patient. However, 36 per cent did not like having only scheduled time for FR. The majority, 75 per cent, believed that all concerns were addressed during FR, and 84.9 per cent rated their overall experience as either excellent or good. Scheduled FR appear to improve communication between trauma surgeons and patients' families, enhance the family-physician relationship, and strengthen our surgical residency teaching program.

Having empathy in the design process can help engineers relate to the end-user by identifying what and why certain experiences are meaningful. While there have been efforts to identify the factors that impact empathic tendencies in engineering, there has been limited evidence on how a students’ trait empathy or empathic self-efficacy develops over a design project or what factors impact this development. The current study was developed to explore the development of students’ trait empathy and empathic self-efficacy development and identify the underlying impact of the design project’s context and course instructor through a study with 103 engineering students. Students’ trait empathy and empathic self-efficacy were measured across each of the four design stages (problem formulation, concept generation, concept selection, and final conceptual design) during an 8-week project. The results highlight that students’ trait empathy and empathic self-efficacy did not increase across design stages and the context of the design problem did not impact students’ empathy development. Meanwhile, students displayed lower empathic self-efficacy in one of the course sections, and interviews with the course instructors revealed that the lack of accessibility to the end-user might have constricted students from developing empathy. These insights call for future research that could empirically assess the impact of trait empathy and empathic self-efficacy in driving design outcomes in the later design stages, which could increase engineering educators’ awareness of the role of empathy in the engineering classroom.

Social media technology has become an integral part in elders’ daily communication. While there is an intense interest among HCI scholars to design effective function and interface to assist elder users’ digital communication, a theoretical understanding to guide this design is lacking. To address this research gap, this study examines the effect of social media communication on elders’ perception of intergenerational isolation. From the perspective of technology affordance (functional vs. emotional), we examines both the role of online usage behavior of social media (frequency and form) and offline intergenerational distance (geographical distance). 107 interview-based survey results show that: (1) Elders with a higher level of functional affordance are willing to try diverse social functions to communicate with their children, while emotional affordance will increase elders’ intergenerational communication frequency; (2) Communication frequency can reduce elders’ perceived intergenerational isolation, but diversity of communication forms cannot; (3) Unexpectedly, geographical distance significantly decrease elders’ perception of intergenerational isolation, because of the mediator role of increased intergenerational communication frequency and forms in social media. Our research has profound theoretical and practical implications.

This study explores the use of emojis and abbreviations in scholars’ daily communication regarding social media conversation, particularly focusing on their perceived professionalism and impact on users’ reputations. The objective is to assess how these digital communication features are viewed within academic contexts. To achieve this, the research employed archival and survey methods over 22 days, documenting 501 emoji usages across 113 interactions or posts by MPhil-PhD scholars. Data were collected through three closed-ended questions to evaluate participants’ attitudes and perceptions. Findings reveal that the beating heart emoji is the most frequently used among academics in group discussions (51.8%), suggesting that it conveys strong emotional responses. The study highlights significant considerations regarding gender, religious and cultural biases in emoji usage, indicating that while emojis can enhance communication, their overuse may lead to negative consequences. It suggests that effective use of emojis in communication requires an understanding of context, audience and cultural sensitivity to avoid misunderstandings and maintain effective communication. This study underscores the importance of emojis in academic settings, enhancing emotional expression and influencing social dynamics as digital communication continues to evolve.

Introduction:Paging is a vital part of patient care that allows quick contact between physicians and other hospital personnel. There was no structured way to send a page to physicians at our institution. We hypothesized that by standardizing paging format, scheduling laboratory draw times, and using order clean-up sheets, through a bundle of interventions called Better Etiquette for Effective Paging, we would decrease the number of pages received on the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) resident pager by 15%.Methods:This project was a quality improvement initiative in a 25-bed multidisciplinary PICU in a tertiary children’s hospital. Baseline data collection was performed in December 2015, categorized by time of day received and type of page. Interventions were paging standards to include relevant information, scheduling laboratory draw times, and order clean-up sheets. We collected postintervention data over 3 years to monitor for sustained change.Results:The average number of pages decreased from a baseline of 4.71 pages/patient/d in 2015 to 3.70 in 2016 (21% decrease), 3.32 in 2017 (30% decrease), and 2.74 in 2018 (42% decrease). The average PRISM 3 score remained similar in all sets (2.52, 2.50, 2.10, and 2.35). The standardized mortality ratio was not adversely affected by the decrease in pages (0.58, 1.07, 1.19, and 0).Conclusion:Standardizing the format of pages and using scheduled laboratory times with order clean-up sheets has decreased the number of pages/patient/d in the PICU by 42% without adversely affecting patient care. We can continue to improve communication among the patient care team by emphasizing efficient, standardized communication using Better Etiquette for Effective Paging.

The advent of instant messaging apps like WhatsApp has changed the way parents communicate digitally. One of the more popular features is the use of stickers in messages. This study aims to determine the use of WhatsApp stickers in digital communication among parents in Baladewa Rt 08, Bandung city, and measure its impact on the effectiveness of their communication. This research uses quantitative methods, the data collection technique is in the form of a questionnaire to a group of parents who actively use WhatsApp stickers in daily communication. The results showed that the use of WhatsApp stickers can increase emotional expression and creativity in parents' digital communication and how the use of these stickers affects their communication effectiveness in facing the challenges of modern digital communication. However, there is also the constraint that the use of WhatsApp stickers may compromise communication effectiveness in some contexts. Therefore, this study provides an in-depth insight into how the use of WhatsApp stickers affects digital communication among parents, with diverse impacts for the development of communication and interaction technologies. The conclusions of this study can help in developing an understanding of how parents interact with digital communication technologies.

Learning to respond to others' distress with well-regulated empathy is an important developmental task linked to positive health outcomes and moral achievements. However, this important interpersonal skill set may also confer risk for depression and anxiety when present at extreme levels and in combination with certain individual characteristics or within particular contexts. The purpose of this review is to describe an empirically grounded theoretical rationale for the hypothesis that empathic tendencies can be "risky strengths." We propose a model in which typical development of affective and cognitive empathy can be influenced by complex interplay among intraindividual and interindividual moderators that increase risk for empathic personal distress and excessive interpersonal guilt. These intermediate states in turn precipitate internalizing problems that map onto empirically derived fear/arousal and anhedonia/misery subfactors of internalizing disorders. The intraindividual moderators include a genetically influenced propensity toward physiological hyperarousal, which is proposed to interact with genetic propensity to empathic sensitivity to contribute to neurobiological processes that underlie personal distress responses to others' pain or unhappiness. This empathic personal distress then increases risk for internalizing problems, particularly fear/arousal symptoms. In a similar fashion, interactions between genetic propensities toward negative thinking processes and empathic sensitivity are hypothesized to contribute to excess interpersonal guilt in response to others' distress. This interpersonal guilt then increases the risk for internalizing problems, especially anhedonia/misery symptoms. Interindividual moderators, such as maladaptive parenting or chronic exposure to parents' negative affect, further interact with these genetic liabilities to amplify risk for personal distress and interpersonal guilt as well as for consequent internalizing problems. Age-related increases in the heritability of depression, anxiety, and empathy-related constructs are consistent with developmental shifts toward greater influence of intraindividual moderators throughout childhood and adolescence, with interindividual moderators exerting their greatest influence during early childhood. Efforts to modulate neurobiological and behavioral expressions of genetic dysregulation liabilities and to promote adaptive empathic skills must thus begin early in development.

Objectives: This study compared the empathic behaviour of first year to final year dental and medical students in Malaysia and explored whether academic training of dental and medical students increases their subjective empathic tendencies. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out among 1020 first year to final year (fifth-year) undergraduate medical and dental students using a validated, self-administered Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Care Provider Student Version (JSE-HPS) questionnaire. The data were collected from first year to final year (fifth-year) students enrolled in Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) and Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) degree programs at 2 government-funded universities and one private university. Results: Dental students had a significantly higher total mean empathy score than medical students (84.11 versus 81.96, p &lt; 0.05). However, medical students had a narrow actual score range (59.35 - 133.35) than dental (22.05 - 133.35) students. Males (Medical: 82.57, Dental: 84.97) and students of Malay origin (Medical: 82.52, Dental: 85.11) were more empathic than females and students of other ethnic origins. The results also indicate that third-year medical students (mean: 82.95) and fourth-year dental students (mean: 86.36) were more empathic than students in other professional years.Conclusions: We recommend the use of some form of active training and assessment to assist in the development of empathy in medical and dental students. Medical and dental schools should place more emphasis on teaching empathic communication.

BackgroundEmergency Medical Communication Centres (EMCCs) play a crucial role in emergency care by ensuring timely responses through telephone triage. However, extended communication times can impede accessibility, patient triage, and decision-making. Identifying the factors influencing communication duration is essential for improving EMCC efficiency.ObjectiveThis study aims to identify temporal, human, and contextual factors associated with prolonged communication times in an EMCC where decision-making is conducted by physicians.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective observational study of all calls received at a French EMCC between March 1 and December 31, 2019. A total of 108,548 patient medical files were analyzed, excluding calls from medical personnel or hospitals. We examined the total communication time (from call initiation to decision) and the medical communication time (physician involvement). Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to identify factors associated with prolonged communication times.ResultsThe median total communication time was 7 min [IQR 5–11], and the median medical communication time was 3 min [IQR 2–4]. Psychiatric reasons for calling (OR = 1.75) and elderly patients (OR = 1.58) were associated with longer communication times. Calls leading to medical advice (OR = 1.48) and calls during weekends or nighttime were also significant factors. Conversely, calls for trauma or from nursing homes, and those handled by emergency physicians, were associated with shorter durations.ConclusionSeveral factors influence communication times in EMCCs, including patient demographics, reason for the call, and time of day.

Aim: Adolescence is a critical period in which individuals develop social skills and emotional awareness, and family structure plays an important role in this process. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between adolescents' perceptions of healthy families and their empathy levels towards individuals who are bullied. Methods: The study was descriptive and cross-sectional. In the study, using a convenience sampling method, 325 adolescents between the ages of 15-19 living in Gaziantep were reached online. Data were gathered using a sociodemographic information form, the Healthy Family Scale, and the Empathy Toward the Victim of Peer Bullying Scale. Descriptive statistics, comparison analyses between variables and scales, and tests of association between scales were used to analyze the data. The significance level was 95% confidence interval. Results: The study was descriptive and cross-sectional. In the study, using a convenience sampling method, 325 adolescents between the ages of 15-19 living in Gaziantep were reached online. Data were gathered using a sociodemographic information form, the Healthy Family Scale, and the Empathy Toward the Victim of Peer Bullying Scale. Descriptive statistics, comparison analyses between variables and scales, and tests of association between scales were used to analyze the data. Conclusion: The findings show that healthy family functioning positively affects the empathic tendencies of adolescents. Especially mothers' education level and supportive communication within the family are determining factors in empathy development. In addition, the number of children in the family is one of the important variables affecting the level of empathy. The study highlights the importance of family-based intervention and support programs by emphasizing the impact of family structure on psychosocial development. As a result, it is recommended to develop interventions to strengthen family communication and support parents to increase the empathy levels of adolescents.