Active-empathic Listening Research Articles

Cultural adaptation and psychometric evaluation of the Italian version of the Active-Empathic Listening Scale among undergraduate nursing students: a three phase validation study

AimTo translate, culturally adapt and evaluate the psychometric properties of an Italian version of the Active Empathic Listening Scale (AELS-It) for first year students on a Bachelor degree in nursing. BackgroundActive and empathic listening is characterised by the active and emotional involvement of the listener and is particularly important for nurses to understand and address patients’ needs. When nurses demonstrate to patients that they are active and empathic listeners, it leads to deeper engagement and trust, strengthens the nurse-patient relationship and enhances the quality of care. Consequently, it is essential to incorporate active and empathic listening into nursing education, as it equips future nurses to communicate and respond to patients’ needs effectively. AELS is a tool that measures active and empathic listening styles. To the best of our knowledge, no study has validated and psychometrically tested AELS among nursing students and no studies have examined the application of the AELS scale within the Italian context. DesignA three-phase cross-sectional validation study. MethodsThe tool was first translated into Italian and adapted according to the recommendations of Beaton et al. (2000). A panel of 12 experts in nursing education evaluated the face and content validity. The psychometric properties of the Italian AELS (AELS-It) were assessed in a sample of nursing students. The dimensionality and construct validity of the tool were tested through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Reliability was estimated using both traditional and composite methods. ResultsA total of 207 students were included. The overall content validity index was 0.9. The exploratory factor analysis confirmed a three factor structure. Confirmatory factor analysis showed a second-order factor structure with adequate fit indices. The reliability of the second-order factor analysis for the scale was adequate, with Cronbach’s α (0.877) and Composite-ω (0.875). ConclusionsThe Italian version of AELS-It proved to be a reliable tool to test active empathic listening in Italian nursing students and it could be a useful instrument in nursing education.

Providing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Nonbinary, and Queer Adolescents With Nurturance, Trustworthiness, and Safety: Protocol for Pilot Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial Design.

Sexual and gender minority youths (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary, and queer individuals) face elevated risks of substance use (eg, alcohol and tobacco) and mental health issues (eg, depressive symptoms and suicidality) compared to their cisgender heterosexual peers. These inequities are hypothesized to be reduced by building supportive high school environments via the training of school staff. An intervention that trains school staff to better understand and support sexual and gender minority youths and engage in positive bystander behaviors that protect them from bullying exposure may reduce disparities in drug and alcohol use among them. Experts, school staff, and sexual and gender minority youths developed Providing LGBTQ+ Adolescents with Nurturance, Trustworthiness, and Safety (PLANTS), a web-based intervention to train school staff on how to support, affirm, and protect sexual and gender minority youths. This paper describes the design of the PLANTS pilot trial primarily aimed at assessing its acceptability, usability, appropriateness, and feasibility. We hypothesize PLANTS will have high acceptability, usability, appropriateness, and feasibility as rated by the school staff. Secondary objectives focus on implementation, safety, and pre-post changes in high school staff outcomes, including self-efficacy and skills (eg, active-empathic listening and bullying intervention). Exploratory objectives focus on the impact of PLANTS on student health outcomes. In a 2-arm cluster randomized controlled trial, high schools in Massachusetts are allocated to PLANTS or an active comparator group (publicly available sexual and gender minority youths resources or training). High school staff complete pretest and posttest surveys containing validated scales. Primary outcomes are validated measures of acceptability, usability, appropriateness, and feasibility of the intervention completed by staff during posttest surveys. To test our primary hypotheses for each outcome, we will calculate means and 95% CIs and P values using 1-sample 2-sided t tests against a priori thresholds or benchmarks of success. Secondary outcomes include staff's active-empathetic listening skills, self-efficacy for working with sexual and gender minority youths, bystander intervention behaviors for bullying and cyberbullying, and self-efficacy for PLANTS' change objectives completed during pretest and posttest staff surveys. Staff can also complete a posttest interview guided by the Information-Motivation-Behavior model and Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research. Exploratory outcomes include student-level data collected via the 2021 and 2023 MetroWest Adolescent Health Surveys, a health behavior surveillance system in 30 Massachusetts schools. School enrollment began in May 2023 and participant enrollment began in June 2023. Data collection is expected to be completed by February 2024. This pilot trial will yield important information about the PLANTS intervention and provide necessary information to conduct a fully powered trial of the efficacy of PLANTS for reducing the deleterious health inequities experienced by sexual and gender minority youths. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05897827; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05897827. DERR1-10.2196/55210.

Exploring the active-empathic listening behaviors of the Quezon City local government social media at the time of the pandemic

Organizations have substantially taken to social media their attempts to address the communication gaps caused by COVID-19. This investigation sought to explore how a local government unit’s social media page practiced and manifested active-empathic listening in response to the communication challenges brought about by the global health emergency. Although this study recognizes that active-empathic listening is a dimension already integrated in local interpersonal contexts, there is still a need to contextualize listening behaviors exchanged in social media in consideration of the local government unit’s crisis communication practices. Press releases from Quezon City’s official Facebook page were selected and analyzed using content analysis anchored in Bodie’s Active-Empathic Listening Scale. The study discovered that more than half of all key phrases and sentences that exhibited listening behaviors in the press releases manifested sensing behaviors – they reflected active-empathic listening through being sensitive and receptive to public opinion, acknowledging that their constituents were being sought and heard, and verbalizing empathy. A number of messages also demonstrated the responding listening dimension, with statements denoting proactive measures done to address the citizen’s concerns. Only a few messages were found to have exhibited processing listening behaviors which are messages aimed to verbalize the cognitive processes of hearing and remembering. By successfully integrating dimensions of active-empathic listening, Quezon City – through its Facebook page – managed to not only deliver public health information but also extend empathy, social support, and responsiveness to its constituents. The study’s findings ultimately suggested how local government units can utilize social media to incorporate relational initiatives to make crisis communication more empathetic and interpersonal.

Tertiary Students' Deficiency in English Emphatic Listening Skills of NLP Matching and Mirroring Technique

Active Empathic listening is an activity that combines traditional active listening procedures with the element of empathy, which will result in a higher form of listening (Drollinger, Comes & Warrington, 2006, p.162). Drollinger et al. conceptualized AEL (active empathic listening) as a three-stage activity: sensing, processing, and responding. Empathic listening helps us to listen and understand how others feel. It is one of the most essential social skills we need to maintain healthy relationships with others. Empathic listening helps us to relate to those around us more healthily and effectively. Empathic listening helps to get into a conversation, especially with college students. This research will use a Google form as a questionnaire instrument filled out by participants. The research reveals that participants rarely heard about Empathic Listening and used it in conversation because it was never heard and learned before; some say it is not interesting to learn.

Effect of Different Listening Behaviors of Social Robots on Perceived Trust in Human-robot Interactions

With the increased use of social robots in prominence and beyond functional performance, they are expected to foster trust and confidence in people. Various factors involve providing social robots with more trustworthy behavior. This study investigated whether the listening behavior of a social robot can affect the perception of being trustworthy in human–robot interaction. Therefore, we designed four different listening behaviors, including nonactive listening, active listening, active empathic listening, and verbal-only empathic listening, for a social robot and evaluated the impact of each behavior on the participants’ likelihood of trusting the robot, using a between-subject design. Participants in the four conditions conversed with a robot that simulated one of the listening behaviors, and their general, cognitive and affective trust toward the robot was measured. The results indicated that active empathic listening behavior provided the participants with the highest impression of trustworthiness, specifically in affective trust. Both active listening and active empathic listening were evaluated higher than nonactive listening in general, affective, and cognitive trust. However, active empathic listening behavior was differentiated from active listening behavior only in terms of affective trust. For verbal and nonverbal dimensions of listening behaviors, it was confirmed that nonverbal behaviors such as nodding, body movement, and eye gaze along with verbal behaviors, had a significant effect in eliciting higher affective trust in human-robot interaction. Consequently, we concluded that designing social robots with active (empathic) listening behavior can enhance trust perception in human-robot interaction in different fields such as education, healthcare, and business.

Training pre-service teachers to better serve LGBTQ high school students

ABSTRACT Pre-service teachers rarely receive training on how best to serve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) high school students. We tested whether participating in LGBTQ-focused service-based learning or LGBTQ-focused didactic training improved pre-service teachers’ knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, and skills for serving LGBTQ high school students more than a control group. A non-randomised pre-test-post-test design with eighty-eight participants tested these differences. At post-test, the service-based learning group had significantly higher active-empathic listening and self-efficacy for working with LGBTQ high school students than the control group. There were no differences for didactic versus control groups. Overall, service-based learning may better prepare pre-service teachers to serve LGBTQ high school students.

Self-reported altruism as predictor for active-empathic listening skills

While there are many consistent results regarding the altruism – empathy relationship, starting with the empathy-altruism hypothesis (Batson, 2008) and its confirmations or criticism, there is one specific aspect of empathy that has not often been associated with generosity: active listening. Our research hypothesizes that sharing one’s attention in an empathic way (active-empathic listening) might be a skill linked to a person’s generosity. A linear regression established that self-reported altruism (SRA) could statistically significantly predict someone’s active-empathic listening skill (AELS), F(1, 96) = 28,965, p = .0001 and that SRA accounted for 22,4% of the explained variability in AELS. The results confirmed the initial claim and may have an impact in counseling practice, in career decision-making or in other studies on prosocial behavior.

Employees’ Perceptions of Supervisors’ Listening Skills and Their Work-Related Quality of Life

This study investigated how employees’ perceptions of their supervisors’ listening skills are associated with employees’ work-related quality of life. The study used a nationally representative sample of the employed Icelandic population (N = 453). Participants completed the Active-Empathic Listening (AEL) scale and Work-Related Quality of Life scale. Results showed that employees who rated supervisors to be higher on the AEL scale reported a higher general well-being score. More specifically, employees who perceived supervisors to have higher AEL rated their working conditions and control at work higher, reported being happier with their career and home-work interface, were generally more content with their life, and showed lower levels of stress compared to employees who perceived supervisors to have lower AEL.

Active and Empathic Listening in Social Media: What do Stakeholders Really Expect

Researchers examined expectations and evaluations of active-empathic listening (AEL) during digital dialogic communication between organizations and customers. Through an experimental design, participants (N= 180) rated responses for social media communication from an organization to hypothetical customer messages. Results indicate individuals expect a high level of AEL from organizations’ social media responses, and higher active-empathic responses were rated as more competent. When communicating with an organization via social media, 22.1% stated that the response did not meet expectations versus 76.7% reporting the response met or exceeded expectations. Implications and future research avenues are discussed.

A positive deviance approach to improve familial authorization for organ donation.

The current study evaluates the Positive Deviance Donation Collaborative, a communication training program designed to identify and disseminate behaviors of requesters with above-average rates of familial authorization to organ donation. The program initiated with a cohort of 99 requesters from 11 OPOs. Requesters' quarterly authorization rates were monitored for 33months, and their pre-/post-intervention skills in active-empathic listening and self-efficacy to request donation were assessed. Overall, requesters' mean quarterly authorization rate was 53.69% (SD=4.54). Multilevel models were used to examine change in authorization rates and communication skills, as well as associations between skills and authorization. Low intraclass correlation coefficients for authorization rates established that most variance was due to within-requester variation, rather than OPOs (ρ=0.0129) or requesters within OPOs (ρ=0.0221). Models indicated that authorization rates and communication skills failed to improve following intervention and did not identify an association between post-intervention communication skills and authorization. Results provide a framework to discuss programmatic challenges including extensive requester turnover (ie, ~60%), management of data collection across multi-site interventions, and program content.

Conditions and Consequences of Listening Well for Interpersonal Relationships: Modeling Active-Empathic Listening, Social-Emotional Skills, Trait Mindfulness, and Relational Quality

In an attempt to better understand the nature and effects of listening well in relationships, participants (N = 137) in romantic relationships completed assessments of active-empathic listening (AEL), social-emotional skills, trait mindfulness, and relational quality (i.e., satisfaction and commitment). Based on previous research, we offered two models: In one, we argued that social-emotional skill, mediated by mindfulness, would predict self-reports of AEL; in the other, we hypothesized that AEL, mediated by social-emotional skill and trait mindfulness, would predict relational quality. We found some support for both models. Specifically, our analyses revealed that mindfulness positively mediated the relationship between one social skill, social expressivity, and AEL. In addition, a negative mediating relationship emerged between a second social skill (social sensitivity), mindfulness, and AEL. Our results also showed mindfulness mediating the relationship between the processing aspect of AEL and relational satisfaction.

Personal and Job Factors Associated with Teachers’ Active Listening and Active Empathic Listening

Active listening is important for effective interpersonal communication, a prerequisite for successful teaching. The presented cross-sectional study examined personal and work factors associated to active listening in 3.995 Greek schools’ educators of all teaching levels and specialties. The study questionnaire posted on official and main teachers’ portals included personal and working data items, the Active Empathic Listening Scale (AELS), and the Active Listening Attitude Scale (ALAS). Multiple linear regression was used to identify independently associated factors with AELS and ALAS dimensions, and standardized regression coefficients were performed to measure the effect of independent variables. Regarding AELS, gender had the greatest effect on the Sensing subscale, followed by age and mental health promotion training. Years of teaching had the greatest effect on Processing subscale, followed by higher studies. Gender had the greatest effect on Responding subscale, followed by age, higher studies, and mental health promotion training. Concerning ALAS, mental health promotion training and support from colleagues had the greatest effect on Listening attitude subscale, gender and mental health promotion training had the greatest effect on Listening skill subscale, and gender, age, and years of teaching had the greatest effect on Conversation opportunity subscale. The identification of enhancing factors like training in mental health promotion could significantly contribute in designing training that can simultaneously benefit teachers’ skills and students’ psychosocial well-being.

Pelatihan Ketrampilan Mendengarkan Empatik Aktif Untuk Meningkatkan Kedekatan Guru dan Anak

Closeness in teachers-child relationship in early childhood education has a positive impact in increasing the involvement of children with school, improve academic achievement, prosocial behavior and reduce child problem behavior. This study aims to improve closeness in teacher-child relationship in early childhood education through active empathic listening skills training. Participants are four early childhood education teachers. Teacher-child relationships are measured based on teachers' perceptions of their relationship with children. Teachers fill the questionnaire by her perception of her relationship with 5 children. This research uses quasi experimental method with one group pretest-posttest design. The results of statistical data processing showed a very significant change in the increase of closeness level of teacher-child relationship between pretest and post test 1 (z = -3.560, p = 0.000 0,05). Keywords: active empathic listening skill, closeness, teacher-child relationships, early childhood education teachers, early childhood

Learning From Experiences of Feeling Heard: A Qualitative Study of Hospice Volunteers

What does it feel like when someone really listens to you? Data generated in qualitative interviews with ten individual hospice volunteers illuminate the quality of listening they received (and did not receive) from key role models in their lives. Analysis suggests that occasions of receiving listening are rare and pivotal events that can be used to learn more about how to listen to others, particularly in end-of-life care. The article closes with some recommendations for enhancing emotional support for hospice and palliative care volunteers, and for more training in reflective practice, including new approaches to teaching active empathic listening and communication skills.

Using Active Empathetic Listening to Build Relationships With Major-Gift Donors

ABSTRACTBuilding a relationship with a major gift donor is an important form of fundraising for nonprofits. Fundraisers become relationship managers tasked with building trust and developing mutual goals with the donor through effective communication. The importance of effective listening on the fundraisers part is explored in this paper by overlaying Active Empathic Listening (AEL) on the Major Donor Model. AEL is discussed as a method that if used by fundraisers will help them in their efforts to connect in a meaningful way with major donors by enabling the fundraiser to work with more accurate information regarding the donor’s motivations, interest and desires as well as instill a sense of trust and genuineness between both parties.

Instructor Active Empathic Listening and Classroom Incivility

Instructor listening skill is an understudied area in instructional communication research. This study looks at teachers’ active empathic listening behavior association with student incivility. Scholars recognize student incivility as a growing problem and have called for research that identifies classroom behaviors that can affect classroom climate. A total of N = 434 undergraduate students were surveyed about their observations of student incivility in their classes, their perceptions of their instructor’s use of active empathic listening and nonverbal involvement, class size, instructor gender, and estimated instructor age. After controlling for nonverbal involvement, instructor age, instructor gender, and class size, results suggest active empathic listening associates negatively with three types of classroom incivility. Both class size and instructor nonverbal immediacy also emerged as predictors of student incivility.

Do the Big-Five Personality Traits Predict Empathic Listening and Assertive Communication?

As personality traits can influence important social outcomes, the current research investigated whether the Big-Five had predictive influences on communication competences of active-empathic listening (AEL) and assertiveness. A sample of 245 adults of various ages completed the self-report scales. Both Agreeableness and Openness uniquely predicted AEL. Extraversion had the biggest influence on assertiveness but did not uniquely explain AEL variance. Conscientiousness and Neuroticism had small predictive influences on assertiveness. Further investigation into the pathways linking Big-Five facets to the different components of these communication competences is proposed and practical implications including understanding personality traits for successful leadership is discussed.

Intrapersonal Communication and Listening Goals: An Examination of Attributes and Functions of Imagined Interactions and Active-Empathic Listening Behaviors

Using data from 485 college student participants, this study investigated relations among mental representations of conversations and reported tendencies towards active-empathic listening (AEL). Results showed that low usage of imagined interactions (IIs) for rehearsal and self-understanding and high usage of IIs as compensation were associated with lower reported active-empathic responding. In describing IIs, low levels of proactivity and variety were associated with lower reported AEL processing and responding, suggesting individuals who do not engage in IIs before conversations or imagine a variety of potential conversations to gain understanding do not report engaging in behaviors that act to acknowledge partners in conversation. The primary contribution of these findings is to forward an empirical integration of social cognitive and listening research and theory.

The Role of Sex Differences in the Examination of Personality and Active-Empathic Listening: An Initial Exploration

The purpose of the current study was to examine the role that biological sex plays in the relationship between personality and active-empathic listening. Two models were estimated and tested, one including biological sex as a covariate, and one excluding biological sex. Participants (N = 162) completed measures of active-empathic listening and personality. Results from regression analyses examining personality effects with sex as a covariate differed from the results of analyses excluding sex. The discussion section highlights the need for researchers to consider the interrelated roles of sex and personality in examinations of active-empathic listening.

The Temporal Stability and Situational Contingency of Active-Empathic Listening

This article presents three studies furthering validity evidence for a self-report measure of active-empathic listening (AEL). Study 1 investigates the temporal stability of the AEL scale, revealing a statistically sound model with no decline in general fit over time, supporting the scale's measurement of an individual trait-like difference. Studies 2 and 3 investigate the contribution of trait-level AEL and various characteristics of situations to the utilization of AEL. A general discussion focuses on areas for future research with respect to how AEL might help (or hinder) the development and maintenance of close, personal relationships.