Empathy, self-esteem and satisfaction with life in adolescent

Abstract

During school years, emotional skills play a relevant role in the way students face challenges and academic demands, especially in such a key stage for life as adolescence, during which adult personality is configured. During this stage, students undergo different emotional and motivational stages related to learning, which play a crucial role in their personal and academic development. This study aims to analyse the relationship between empathy, self-esteem and satisfaction with life in an ex post facto descriptive design. The study comprised a sample of 1117 adolescent students, both male (N = 603; 53.98 %) and female (N = 514; 46.01 %) with ages ranging from 12 to 18 years (M = 14.40; DT = 1.59). The instruments used were the Basic Empathy Scale (BES), Self-Esteem Scale (RSE) and the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). The results revealed significant correlations between the empathy, self-esteem and satisfaction with life variables, and significant differences between genders. In addition, self-esteem was found to play a mediating role between empathy and satisfaction with life. It is concluded that self-esteem plays a crucial role in adolescent students, and the importance of encouraging adaptative behaviours in the school environment for the adequate personal development of adolescents is emphasised.