The Relationship between Empathy and Responsibility Levels of 5th Grade Students: A Sample from Turkey

Alper Yontar, Selma Yel

Abstract


In the current study, it is aimed to examine the relationship between empathy and responsibility levelsof fifth grade students and for this purpose, the said relationship was examined in terms of gender, Social Studies achievement score and school socioeconomic level. The research is a correlational study and the universe of the study consisted of fifth graders from all state schools in six districts of Ankara (the capital of Turkey). The sample is 1079 fifth-grade students from 18 public schools in these districts. As data collection tools of the research, “Responsibility Scale for Children”, “Empathy Scale” and “Personal Information Form” were applied to the students. Descriptive statistics, independent groups t-test, parametric and nonparametric correlation analysis were used for data analysis (with SPSS 15.0). According to the results of the research, there is a positive, moderate and significant relationship between empathy and responsibility levels of students. The level of the relationship between empathy and responsibility levels of students is higher in males than in females. The students have the highest level of the relationship between empathy and responsibility levels is the group with middle Social Studies success, followed by those students who achieved success at a high level and who achieved success at a low level. The students from upper socioeconomic schools have the highest level of the relationship between empathy and responsibility levels. These are followed by those students from low socioeconomic schools and who from medium socioeconomic schools, respectively.

Keywords


Social Studies Program, Responsibility, Empathy

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.6n.4p.76

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