Investigation of empathy development, internalization and externalizing disorders in male and female students 5 to 11 years

Abstract

The aim of present study was to compare empathy development, internalization and externalizing disorders in male and female students 5 to 11 years. The research method is causal-comparative. The statistical society of the study is including of all children aged 5 to 11 years are the city of Tabriz in order to 150 boys and girls aged from 11 to 5 years of preschool and school-age city of Tabriz with simple random sampling were selected from five different areas of education. The five groups included a 5-year old, 6 year old, 7 year old, 9 years old, 11 years old in each group, 30 patients (15 females and 15 males) were selected. Data were collected by means of two children Symptom Questionnaire was used to measure empathy Dodds. Data were analyzed by t test. Results showed that there is significantly different between boys and girls empathy development, internalization and externalization disorders. Also the results show that Internalization disorders and empathy in girls is more and externalizing disorders in boys is more. The results showed that no difference with mean internalization and externalization disorders in girls 5 and 6 years is, but at the age groups of 7, 9 and 11, out of externalizing disorders are more internalized. Meanwhile, the mean externalizing disorders in boys aged groups 5, 6, 7, and 9 more and with age groups 11 more internalized disorders. Therefore, empathy confirms the role of emotional communication in mental health and social adjustment of children.

Keywords

• development
• empathy
• externalizing disorders
• internalization disorders