Citation

Yeo LS, Ang RP, Loh S, Fu KJ, Karre JK. J. Psychol. 2011; 145(4): 313-330.

Affiliation

Psychological Studies Academic Group, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Nanyang Walk, Singapore 637616. laysee.yeo@nie.edu.sg

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

21834324

Abstract

Bullying behavior is a serious form of school violence, affecting many children. This study investigated the contributions of 2 specific components of empathy (affective and cognitive empathy) on the 3 forms of aggressive behaviors in a sample of 241 Grade 4 and Grade 5 boys from Singapore. The 2 components of empathy differed in their relation with the 3 types of aggression. After accounting for cognitive empathy, affective empathy was associated with physical aggression. Neither affective empathy nor cognitive empathy was associated with verbal aggression. With control for affective empathy, cognitive empathy was associated with indirect aggression. Results suggest that empathy training based on specific deficits may be helpful in intervention and prevention of specific aggressive behaviors.

Language: en