The Effectiveness of Empathy Training on Academic Adjustment and Social Happiness in Elementary Students

Abstract

Empathy has an promoting effect in children's psychosocial adjustment and improves their social behavior and interpersonal cooperation. The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of empathy training in academic adjustment and social happiness of elementary students. The research method was quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test with a control group. For this purpose, 30 people from the statistical population, which included all sixth grade male students in the second district of Baharestan in 2022, were selected by convenient sampling and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The participants answered the Academic Adjustment Questionnaire of Clark et al and the Social Happiness Scale of Zare and Aminpour. The experimental group received empathy training for eight sessions, but the control group did not receive any training. The hypotheses were tested using multivariate analysis of covariance. The results indicated that empathy training increased students' academic adjustment and social happiness. The findings supported the role of empathy in social and motivational outcomes of students.

Keywords

• empathy training
• academic adjustment
• social happiness
• elementary students.