Empathy In Undergraduate Students Research Articles

Attention Moderates the Relationship Between Primary Psychopathy and Affective Empathy in Undergraduate Students.

Psychopathy is personality traits, which is consisted of primary psychopathy characterized by affective and interpersonal problems and secondary psychopathy characterized by behavioral problems. Prior researchers have suggested that people with psychopathy have peculiar attention, which prevents them from detecting information peripheral to their concern, and we hypothesized that this explains their low empathy. Based on these reasoning, the present study assessed whether attention moderates the relationship between psychopathy and affective empathy. Eighty-five undergraduates (40 men and 45 women; mean age = 19.8 years; SD = 1.6) completed the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and a perceptual load task. Hierarchical regression showed that a significant moderation effect was found: primary psychopathy was negatively associated with affective empathy, among those with reduced interference from task-irrelevant stimuli under a medium level of perceptual load. Future study should need to replicate this finding with clinical population.

Validation of Slovenian version of Jefferson scale of empathy for students

Abstract Objective: Empathy is the most frequently mentioned humanistic dimension of patient care and is considered to be an important quality in physicians. The importance of fostering the development of empathy in undergraduate students is continuously emphasised in international recommendations for medical education. Our aim was to validate and adapt the Slovenian version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy- Students version (JSE-S) on a sample of first-year medical students. Methods: First-year students of the Medical faculty in Ljubljana participated in the research. JSE-S version, a selfadministered 20-item questionnaire, was used for collecting the data. Descriptive statistics at the item level and at the scale level, factor analysis, internal consistency and test-retest reliability (two weeks after the first administration) of the JSE-S were performed. Results: 234 out of 298 (response rate 78.5%) students completed JSE-S. The mean score for the items on the 7-point Likert scale ranged from 3.27 (SD 1.72) to 6.50 (SD 0.82). The mean score for the scale (possible range from 20 to 140) was 107.6 (from 71 to 131, SD 12.6). Using factor analysis, we identified six factors, describing 57.2% of total variability. The Cronbach alpha as a measure of internal consistency was 0.79. The instrument has good temporal stability (test-retest reliability ICC = 0.703). Conclusion: Findings support the construct validity and reliability of JSE-S for measuring empathy in medical students in Slovenia. Future research is required to evaluate factors contributing to empathy.

Empathy in senior year and first year medical students: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundThe importance of fostering the development of empathy in undergraduate students is continuously emphasized in international recommendations for medical education. Paradoxically, some studies in the North-American context using self-reported measures have found that empathy declines during undergraduate medical training. Empathy is also known to be gender dependent- (highest for female medical students) and related to specialty preference - (higher in patient-oriented than technology-oriented specialties). This factor has not been studied in Portuguese medical schools.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study of undergraduate medical students on self-rated measures of empathy collected at entrance and at the conclusion of the medical degree, and on the association of empathy measures with gender and specialty preferences in one medical school in Portugal. Empathy was assessed using the Portuguese adaptation of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy-students version (JSPE-spv) among three cohorts of undergraduate medical students in the first (N = 356) and last (N = 120) year. The construct validity of JSPE-spv was cross-validated with Principal Component Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach' Alpha. Global JSPE-spv score differences were examined by year of medical school, gender and specialty preferences (people-oriented vs technology-oriented specialties).ResultsThe empathy scores of students in the final year were higher as compared to first year students (F (1,387) = 19.33, p < .001, ɳ2p = 0.48; π = 0.99). Female students had higher empathy scores than male students (F (1,387) = 8.82, p < .01, ɳ 2p = 0.23; π = 0.84). Significant differences in empathy were not found between the students who prefer people-oriented specialties compared to those who favor the technology-oriented specialties (F (1,387) = 2.44, p = .12, ɳ 2p = 0.06; π = 0.06).ConclusionsThis cross-sectional study in one medical school in Portugal showed that the empathy measures of senior year students were higher than the scores of freshmen. A longitudinal cohort study is needed to test variations in students' empathy measures throughout medical school.