The Key Role of Empathy in the Relationship between Age and Social Support

Abstract

Aging involves several changes depending on genetic and behavioral factors, such as lifestyle and the number and quality of social relationships, which in turn can be influenced by empathy. Here, the change in the perceived social support across the lifespan as a function of empathy was investigated, considering the mediating role of empathy after controlling for gender and education. In total, 441 people (18–91 years old) filled in the Italian short version of the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL-12), the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ6), as well as the Empathy Questionnaire (EQ), and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (RMET). The mediation analyses with ISEL-12 showed that age and the EQ fully mediated the relationship between age and appraisal, belonging, and tangible scores. Further, the EQ fully mediated only the relationship between age and SSQ6-People. These results showed that empathic skills are key in the relationships between age and social support. This suggests that empathy can trigger social support and, ultimately, well-being if stimulated across the lifespan, especially from a young age; this would help to form the socio-emotional competence across the years as a sort of cushion that can be useful in the older to fulfill active aging.

Reliability and Validity of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support Among Women and Adolescent Girls With Disabilities in Selected Sub-districts of Bangladesh

“…The reliability and validity process of our utilized tool, the MSPSS English version developed by Zimet et al, Zimet et al, Canty-Mitchell and Zimet, and Dahlem et al [1][2][3][4], was followed (Table 1). There are a few more similar scales, e.g., the Social Support Scale (SSS) [5], the Online Social Support Scale [6], the Family Support Scale (FSS) [7], the Family Resilience Assessment Scale [8], the Family Connectedness Scale [9], the Perceived Support Network Inventory [10], the Sexual Relationship Power Scale [11], and the Social Support Questionnaire -Short Form (SSQ6) [12]. Furthermore, there are different tools to assess social support available at the following link: https://elcentro.sonhs.miami.edu/research/measures-library/socialsupport-relationship-construct/index.html.…”