Medical Students’ Empathy During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A cross-sectional study

IF 0.5 Q4 PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATIONAL

International Journal of Emotional Education Pub Date : 2023-04-01 DOI:10.56300/leeg4898

J. Triffaux, S. Tisseron, J. Nasello

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Several authors have underlined the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in several populations, including medical students, such as increases in anxiety, depression and burnout symptoms. Furthermore, previous studies showed that anxiety and depressive symptoms are positively associated with affective empathy and negatively associated with cognitive empathy. Given the adverse pandemic effects highlighted by several authors, the present study sought to determine whether medical students’ empathy has been potentially impacted, with higher affective empathy and lower cognitive empathy score in the pandemic cohort compared to pre-pandemic cohorts. Medical students (n = 395) were recruited during the COVID-19 pandemic and completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Basic Empathy Scale (BES). This cohort was then compared with two pre-pandemic cohorts (one used the BES [n = 1168], and the other used the IRI [n = 342]). Similar results were found on both scales: the pandemic cohort displayed significantly higher scores in affective empathy and personal distress (affective empathy domain) and, surprisingly, significant higher scores in cognitive empathy, fantasy, and perspective-taking (cognitive empathy domains). As stressed by previous studies, we posited that the higher scores in affective empathy, personal distress, and fantasy might indicate emotional difficulties. The paper concludes with the identification of empathy components that should be promoted in the curriculum of medical students. Keywords: medical education; medical students; empathy; COVID-19, affective empathy, cognitive empathy

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COVID-19大流行期间医学生的同理心:一项横断面研究

几位作者强调了COVID-19大流行对包括医学生在内的一些人群的心理健康产生的负面影响，例如焦虑、抑郁和倦怠症状的增加。此外，已有研究表明，焦虑和抑郁症状与情感共情呈正相关，与认知共情呈负相关。鉴于几位作者强调的不利的大流行影响，本研究试图确定医学生的共情是否受到了潜在的影响，与大流行前的队列相比，大流行队列中的情感共情得分更高，认知共情得分更低。在新冠肺炎大流行期间招募医学生(n = 395)，完成人际反应指数(IRI)和基本同理心量表(BES)。然后将该队列与两个大流行前队列(一个使用BES [n = 1168]，另一个使用IRI [n = 342])进行比较。在两个量表上都发现了类似的结果:大流行队列在情感同理心和个人痛苦(情感同理心领域)方面表现出明显更高的分数，令人惊讶的是，在认知同理心、幻想和换位思考(认知同理心领域)方面表现出显著更高的分数。正如之前的研究所强调的，我们假设情感共情、个人痛苦和幻想得分较高可能表明情绪困难。最后，提出医学生共情课程应提升的共情要素。关键词:医学教育;医学生;同理心;COVID-19，情感同理心，认知同理心

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来源期刊

International Journal of Emotional Education PSYCHOLOGY, EDUCATIONAL-

CiteScore

1.70

自引率

0.00%

发文量

审稿时长

25 weeks

期刊介绍： It is a peer-reviewed, international, electronic journal providing space for high quality, empirically based papers on effective intervention and evaluation in the area of emotional education. The journal has special issues dedicated to specific topics in emotional education, and a book review section. Some of the areas related covered by the journal include amongst others emotional intelligence, social and emotional development, educational resilience, social and emotional health, social and emotional literacy, social and emotional competence, social, emotional and behaviour difficulties, health promotion in schools, mental health in children and young people, mental health in schools, behaviour management and behaviour modification, teaching and learning.