Empati bland gymnasieungdomar : Har könstillhörighet och syskon betydelse för hur empatiska vi blir?

Sammanfattning: The aim of this essay was to examine whether gender, siblings and sibling placement has an effect on empathy among older teenagers in Sweden. We let 72 high school students aged 18 - 19 answer a survey based on Basic empathy scale, together with two qualitative questions. Basic Empathy scale measures both affective empathy, which is the ability to feel what someone else feels, and cognitive empathy, which is the ability to understand someone elses feelings. The results showed that girls scored significantly higher on the affective empathy scale. Older siblings scored significantly higher on the affective empathy scale as well, compared to middle and younger siblings. No significant results were found on the cognitive empathy scale. The answers on the qualitative questions also suggested that girls may have higher empathy, or at least wants to describe themselves as more empathetic. We do believe that more empathy research is needed, especially in a Swedish context.