Abstract
Empathy is the ability to adopt another person's perspective and experience the thoughts and emotions of that individual. Existing literature has demonstrated that high levels of affective empathy may represent a risk factor for the development of internalizing symptoms in college students. The mechanisms underlying the possible relationship between empathy and psychopathology, however, are not yet understood. This study aimed to examine difficulties in emotion regulation as one possible mediator of the relationship between empathy and internalizing symptoms in a large sample of college students. Six hundred and sixteen male and female college students completed a series of self-report questionnaires measuring empathy, difficulties in emotion regulation, and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Findings revealed that difficulties in emotion regulation mediated the relationship between affective empathy and internalizing symptoms, after controlling for participants’ year in college and gender. These results suggest that the development and practice of emotion regulation skills in college students may represent one important component of skill-oriented preventive interventions and health promotion programs buffering against the development of internalizing symptoms in those young adults who tend to demonstrate high levels of affective empathy.
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