The Effectiveness of Empathy Training on Social Adjustment and School Belonging in Elementary Sixth-Grade Students

Safara, Maryam; Rafiee, S

doi:10.29252/ieepj.2.1.71

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Although personal characteristics have been widely recognized as predictors of school belonging (i.e., age and gender, Kashy-Rosenbaum & Aizenkot, 2020; academic achievement, Azagba et al, 2014) this does not seem to be the case for empathy. Only a few studies explored empathy components when addressing school belonging (i.e., Batanova & Loukas, 2014;Safara & Rafiee, 2020) and none, to our knowledge, have looked into empathy as a possible mediator of the relationship between personal characteristics and school belonging. The present study investigated the relationship between personal characteristics and the sense of belonging at school while investigating the mediating role of empathy on the relationship.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychological Applications and Trends 2022

2022

Psychological Applications and Trends

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The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that as of 2021 there were currently 84 million who have been forcibly displaced from their homes across the globe. The conflict in Ukraine has led to a further marked increase in these numbers. Mental health difficulties have been shown to be elevated in forcibly displaced people (including asylum seeking and refugee populations). Risk factors can be associated with events that occurred prior to, during, and after the migratory journey. Whilst there is recognition of the important impact that a history of traumatic events (e.g., torture, abuse and neglect) can have, social adversity in the form of 'daily stressors' (e.g., a lack of access to basic resources, isolation, lack of safety and security, family violence) is being increasingly recognised as an important determinant of the mental health of forcibly displaced people. Concerns have been raised about the potential medicalization of social adversity faced by displaced populations. There has also been a comparative lack of research investigating approaches that may be helpful for enhancing the quality of life and subjective wellbeing of forcibly displaced people. Psychosocial interventions and low-intensity psychological interventions can provide scalable opportunities for treating common mental disorders and promoting wellbeing. This presentation will focus on research studies that I have been involved in which have been undertaken in the EU and in sub-Saharan Africa to evaluate the efficacy of psychosocial interventions for forcibly displaced people. These projects have involved the linguistic and cultural adaptation of interventions and assessment measures. The implications that this research has for the integration of forcibly displaced people in the EU and beyond will be discussed. This will include a focus on conceptual frameworks that provide opportunities for situating determinants of mental health in the socio-political context in which forcibly displaced people live their lives, and not just risk-and protective-factors specific to the individual. BiographyProf. Ross White (PhD, DClinPsy) is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at Queen's University Belfast. He is an expert in Global Mental Health. He was lead editor of 'The Palgrave Handbook of Socio-cultural Perspectives on Global Mental Health'. Ross has research collaborations with the World Health Organization and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees investigating the efficacy of psychosocial interventions for reducing distress experienced by refugees particularly in the context and/or aftermath of humanitarian crises. He also has an interest in the processes involved in the linguistic/cultural adaptation of psychological therapies. Ross is the Principal Investigator on the ESRC/AHRC funded Community-based Sociotherapy Adapted for Refugees (COSTAR) project that is evaluating a psychosocial intervention for Congolese refugees living in Uganda and Rwanda. Ross was a co-investigator on the EU Horizon2020 funded Refugee Emerg...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychological Applications and Trends 2022

2022

Psychological Applications and Trends

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“…Although personal characteristics have been widely recognized as predictors of school belonging (i.e., age and gender, Kashy-Rosenbaum & Aizenkot, 2020;academic achievement, Azagba et al, 2014) this does not seem to be the case for empathy. Only a few studies explored empathy components when addressing school belonging (i.e., Batanova & Loukas, 2014;Safara & Rafiee, 2020) and none, to our knowledge, have looked into empathy as a possible mediator of the relationship between personal characteristics and school belonging. The present study investigated the relationship between personal characteristics and the sense of belonging at school while investigating the mediating role of empathy on the relationship.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adolescents´ Sense of Belonging at School: The Role of Empathy and Individual Characteristics

Veldin¹,

Kozina²

2022

Psychological Applications and Trends

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"There are many benefits of a high sense of school belonging (i.e., lower psychological distress), yet a lot of students do not feel like they belong to their schools. Many researchers have therefore tried to increase the sense of belonging in adolescents via different interventions. One of the recent review articles (Allen et al., 2021) discovered that successful interventions targeted students’ strengths and promoted positive interactions. One way these strengths and positive interactions could be targeted is to build empathy capacities. Although personal characteristics have been widely recognized as predictors of school belonging (i.e., age, gender, academic achievement, etc.) this does not seem to be the case for empathy. Only a few studies explored empathy components when addressing school belonging (i.e., Batanova & Loukas, 2014) and none, to our knowledge, have looked into empathy as a possible mediator of the relationship between personal characteristics and school belonging. The present study investigated the relationship between personal characteristics and the sense of belonging at school while investigating the mediating role of empathy on the relationship. A randomized sample of 1990 students from Slovenia (M = 15.35 years, SD = 1.23; 58.3% female) was used in a structural equation modelling to determine the relationships between the individual characteristics (gender, age, grades) and the Sense of belonging at school (OECD, 2018), while looking into the mediating role of both empathy components, namely, Empathic concern and Perspective taking (IRI; Davis, 1980). Results showed that all personal characteristics (gender, age, grades) are positively connected to both empathy components. Also, both empathy components (Perspective taking, Empathic concern) have a positive connection with the Sense of belonging at school. Furthermore, grades have a direct positive and gender a direct negative connection with the Sense of belonging at school. Lastly, both empathy components mediate all the indirect paths from the personal characteristics to the Sense of belonging at school, thus providing 6 positive indirect paths in-between. The model provides an insight into the important role that empathy has when addressing the sense of school belonging. Not only is it connected to it, but it also mediates the paths from the personal characteristics, which is especially important for the direct negative path from gender. Addressing empathy (especially empathic concern, which has the highest connection to school belonging) is advisable when trying to influence the sense of belonging at school."

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“…It refers to actions that make the student adapt to a particular activity, and increase the student's sense of comfort and well-being, and reduce the student's anxiety. Belonging to school has six components including the Teacher support, Belonging with peers, Fairness and safety, Academic engagement, Relatedness of self with school and Engagement in community (Safara & Rafiee, 2020). Goodenow (1993) believes that a student who feels a sense of belonging to the school considers himself / herself as a participant who is committed in school activities and this increases the motivation of the student to achieve the desired goals of the school.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of School Connectedness, Adjustment and Academic Buoyancy in Iranian and Afghan Elementary Students

Javdan

Montaseri

2021

Iranian Evolutionary and Educational Psychology

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The aim of this study was to compare the sense of belonging, adjustment and academic buoyancy among Iranian and Afghan students in elementary schools. To this end, a causal-comparative design was used. The statistical population included all Iranian and Afghan primary school students who were studying in one of the primary schools in the 11th district of Shiraz, Iran in the 2020 academic year. The sample consisted of 60 Afghan and Iranian male and female students who were selected by random sampling method. To collect data, HosseinChari and Dehghanizadeh Academic Buoyancy Scale, Brew et al. students' sense of connectedness with school scale and the Student Adjustment Scale were used. Data analysis was done using univariate and multivariate analysis of variance. Findings indicated that the scores of sense of connectedness with school, the adjustment (general adjustment, emotional adjustment, social adjustment and academic adjustment) and the feeling of buoyancy in Iranian students are higher than Afghan students. Cultural differences and immigration of Afghan students may be the possible explanations of the findings.

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The Effectiveness of Empathy Training on Social Adjustment and School Belonging in Elementary Sixth-Grade Students

Cited by 3 publications

References 9 publications

Psychological Applications and Trends 2022

Psychological Applications and Trends 2022

Adolescents´ Sense of Belonging at School: The Role of Empathy and Individual Characteristics

Comparison of School Connectedness, Adjustment and Academic Buoyancy in Iranian and Afghan Elementary Students

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