Empathy and Behavioural Issues in the School Environment
Mariateresa Lorusso, Roberta Algieri, Iacopo Bertacchi, Lorenza Buonvino, Valentina Levantini, Consuelo Giuli, Sara Covarino, Laura Pannunzi, Pietro Muratori
The current study presents additional data about a new tool to evaluate empathy in young children: the Measure of Empathy in Early Childhood (MEEC). We collected a sample of second year primary school children. Parents filled in the MEEC questionnaire and teachers filled in the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Our study shows a promising validity of the MEEC for evaluating empathy in children. Furthermore, the statistical analysis reveals a positive correlation between children’s empathic abilities and prosocial behaviour at school, as well as a negative correlation between empathy and problematic behaviour at school. Lastly, we found a positive correlation between scores of MEEC rating scales that value the tendency of emotional contagion and an increased frequency of emotional problems externalised by physical symptoms.
Keywords
Empathy, Questionnaire, SDQ, Behavioral Problems, School.
