An Analysis of Secondary School Students’ Empathy Skills in terms of Student- and School-Related Variables

Oct 15, 2026

This study examines the empathy skills of secondary school students by focusing on variables at both student and school levels. Using a correlational survey design, data were collected from 1010 eighth-grade students in 29 randomly selected schools in Uşak during 2021–2022 via Google Forms and analyzed with HLM 8. Results show 80% of empathy score variance comes from student-level variables and 20% from school-level variables, with books read and gender positively related, and daily internet use negatively associated.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Empathy and social-communication context

Internet use, TV time, and empathy

Reading fictional books and empathy

An Analysis of Secondary School Students’ Empathy Skills in terms of Student- and School-Related Variables Ali GÖKAP1 Yusuf İNEL2 Uşak University Abstract This study aims to examine the empathy skills of secondary school students in terms of some selected variables at the student and school levels. The study group of the research, which was structured as acorrelational survey, consisted of 1010 eighth-grade students attending 29 schools selected by random sampling in the province of Uşak during the 2021-2022 school year. The HLM 8 student version was used in the analysis of the data collected via Google Form. 80% of the difference in empathy scores was found to stem from the student-related variables and 20% from the school-level variables. A positive and significant relationship between the number of books read and gender variable and empathy scores was also identified, and it was concluded that as the number of books read by students increased, their empathy scores increased as well, and the girls had higher empathy scores than the boys. In addition, a negative significant relationship was found between the duration of daily internet use and empathy scores. While no significant relationship between school type and empathy was identified, students at secondary schools located in city centers were observed to have higher empathy scores than those located in small towns. Keywords: Empathy, Hierarchical Linear Modeling, Secondary School Students, Correlational Survey. DOI: 10.29329/epasr.2022.248.3 1Dr,, Uşak, Turkey, ORCID: 0000-0002-3301-8392 Correspondence: [gokalpali_1984@hotmail.com](gokalpali_1984@hotmail.com) 2Assoc. Prof. Dr., Faculty of Education, Uşak University, Uşak, Turkey, ORCID: 0000-0003-0739-5730 Email: [ysf.inel@gmail.com](ysf.inel@gmail.com) Introduction In line with the technological developments, various activities of social life such as communication and shopping have begun to change, an increasing number of individuals have begun to communicate and meet their daily needs by using smart devices connected to the Internet. This phenomenon has accelerated with the COVID-19 pandemic experienced at the global level, which brings up some questions such as “How much can individuals understand each other? How can a person make others feel that he/she understands them? A more important question is whether these recent developments have an impact on individuals’ behavior and skills. This question draws our attention to empathy (Batson, 2003; Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998; Hoffman, 1987; Lovett & Sheffield, 2007), which plays a pivotal role in shaping behaviors (Hogan, 1969) that positively predict prosocial behaviors aiming to help others without any self-interest. Empathy involves a person putting him(her)self in the shoes of another person and looking at events from his/her perspective, perceiving that person's feelings and thoughts correctly and communicating this to him/her (Rogers, 1975). Moreover, it is a skill that plays an active role in helping individuals to establish a healthy communication with self and others, helps them to socialize and get along with others better, and to solve problems with others without resorting to violence (Basch, 1983; Breems, 1988; Dökmen, 2008; Rogers, 1975; Yüksel, 2015) . Empathy, which is studied primarily by psychology and was previously claimed to be not fully teachable (Davis, 1990), has now been demonstrated to be a teachable skill (Shapiro, 2000) through a series of activities and curricula (Bal & Bilge, 2016; Batt-Rawden, et al., 2013; Yüksel, 2004) . With the increasing feelings of loneliness and selfishness due to advancing technology and increasing industrialization, it has become increasingly important to create educational environments based on tolerance and sensitivity by analyzing the underlying causes of varying views and attitudes so that the individual can use effective means of communication. Empathy, which has a teachable nature, is

FAQs

How was empathy measured and analyzed in the study?

The study used the HLM 8 student version to analyze data collected via Google Forms, based on variables at student and school levels.

Which factors explained most of the variation in empathy scores?

About 80% of the difference in empathy scores was attributed to student-related variables, while 20% stemmed from school-level variables.

What relationships were found between books read, gender, internet use, and empathy?

A positive and significant relationship was identified between the number of books read and gender with empathy scores; more books corresponded to higher empathy, and girls showed higher empathy than boys. Daily internet use had a negative significant relationship with empathy scores.

Oct 15, 2026

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