Gender Differences in Empathic Sadness towards Persons of the Same- versus Other-sex during Adolescence.

Suzannah Stuijfzand,Jolien Van De Graaff,Maaike Kempes,Wim Meeus,Minet De Wied,Susan Branje

doi:10.1007/s11199-016-0649-3

Suzannah Stuijfzand, Jolien Van De Graaff + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-016-0649-3

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Abstract

Although gender differences in affective empathy are well established, evidence of gender differences in the development of affective empathy is inconsistent. Consideration of same-sex versus other-sex affective empathy may assist in elucidating these inconsistencies. Gender differences were investigated in the experience of empathic sadness towards same- versus other-sex targets. The relationships were studied cross-sectionally (N = 730) and longitudinally (N = 318) with Dutch adolescents using the empathic sadness scale of the Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescents (IECA; Bryant 1982). In both studies, female adolescents reported more empathic sadness than did male adolescents. Female targets also received more affective empathy than did male targets, and, more importantly, gender differences were observed in same-sex versus other-sex affective empathy. Specifically, in both studies male adolescents reported less empathic sadness towards same-sex than towards other-sex targets. In contrast, female adolescents reported more empathic sadness towards same-sex than towards other-sex targets in the cross-sectional study, and equal levels of empathic sadness towards both types of targets in the longitudinal study. Findings highlight the importance of considering same-sex versus other-sex affective empathy. Gender differences in same-sex and other-sex affective empathy have implications for assisting adolescents in social conflict resolution and interventions for bullying and aggressive behaviour in adolescence using empathy training.

Highlights

Gender differences in affective empathy are well established, evidence of gender differences in the development of affective empathy is inconsistent
Support was found for Hypothesis 1 which predicted that female adolescents would score higher on overall empathic sadness than would male adolescents, and for Hypothesis 2 which predicted increasing empathic sadness scores over grade/time, for girls
The cross-sectional data confirm gender differences in other-sex and same-sex empathy, and the longitudinal data suggests that these differences remain stable over time

Summary

Introduction

Gender differences in affective empathy are well established, evidence of gender differences in the development of affective empathy is inconsistent. Female targets received more affective empathy than did male targets, and, more importantly, gender differences were observed in same-sex versus other-sex affective empathy In both studies male adolescents reported less empathic sadness towards same-sex than towards other-sex targets. Female adolescents reported more empathic sadness towards same-sex than towards other-sex targets in the cross-sectional study, and equal levels of empathic sadness towards both types of targets in the longitudinal study. Gender differences in same-sex versus other-sex affective empathy, in terms of empathic sadness, have been established in three cross-sectional studies conducted in the United States (Bryant 1982; Feshbach and Roe 1968) and Norway (Olweus and Endresen 1998). The current study attempts to replicate these findings in a sample of Dutch adolescents, as well as expand on them by adding a longitudinal study allowing investigation of gender differences in the development of adolescents’ same-sex versus other-sex empathy

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