Empathy and Social Relationships in Adolescents with Behavioral Disorders

Abstract

This study explored the relationship between empathy (defined here as a person's emotional responsiveness to the emotional experiences of another) and social competence in adolescents with behavioral disorders. Compared on empathy and several indices of social competence were 39 adolescent males with behavioral disorders and 39 of their age-matched peers without behavioral disorders in order to examine differences and interrelations among these variables within each group. Results indicate that adolescents with behavioral disorders reported lower levels of empathy, participated in fewer extracurricular activities, had less frequent contacts with friends, and had lower quality relationships than their peers without disabilities. The two groups did not differ in self-reported number of close friends. Among adolescents without behavioral disorders, higher empathy was significantly associated with better quality relationships, whereas no correlation between these two variables was evidenced among the adolescents with behavioral disorders. Intervention implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are put forth.