Using a pre- and post-test design, this study examined the changes in empathy skills, life satisfaction, and relationship quality among mainland Chinese adolescents (ages 13–15 years) and their mothers ( N = 108 dyads) following an empathy training intervention. Participants completed a 20-day empathy training, including two in-person group training sessions and daily journals on assigned topics. Participants’ mother-child relationship quality, mother-child conflict, life satisfaction, and empathy skills were measured three times, and selected participants were interviewed to explore their experience of the training. The research procedure followed protocols that were approved by an Institutional Review Board. ANOVAs were used to examine quantitative data and inductive analysis was used for qualitative data. The findings suggest that after the training, both adolescents and mothers reported significant benefits in mother-child relationship quality and life satisfaction. However, participants’ empathy skills (i.e., perspective taking and empathic concern skills) did not change. Possible mechanisms of the observed changes included the empathy skills (e.g., perspective taking skills) learned through the training and the reciprocal nature of positive changes within the mother-child dyad. The current study suggests that empathy training may benefit adolescents and their mothers, both within the relationship and in their general life satisfaction.
The current study took a cross-cultural perspective in understanding the phenomenon in which teachers are bullied by students, comparing Chinese and U.S. teachers. The survey examined Chinese (n = 154) and U.S. (n = 61) teachers' experiences of being bullied by students or witnessing other teachers bullied by students in the past year. Approximately one-third of teachers in both China and the United States reported being the target of student bullying, with relational and verbal bullying the most commonly reported types. More U.S. teachers experienced physical bullying than Chinese teachers, whereas more Chinese teachers experienced sexual bullying than U.S. teachers.U.S. teachers were more likely than Chinese teachers to report that their school had a bullying policy and that they had reported bullying behavior to school administrators.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.