The level of cognitive and affective empathy in light of gender and academic year variables among 8th, 9th & 10th grade students

Abstract

The present study aimed to detect the level of cognitive and affective empathy in a sample of students in the eighth, ninth and tenth grades, and to show the impact of gender and academic year variables on the degree of affective empathy. The study sample consisted of (619) students selected from Al-Ahliyya Charity School in Dubai. To achieve the objective of the study, the researcher used the questionnaire of cognitive and affective empathy (QCAE) according to students' self-assessment prepared by (Reniers, Corcoran, Drake, Shriane and Vollm, 2011) after verifying its validity and reliability. The results of the study revealed that the students have a high degree of cognitive affective empathy, and that the average score for students on affective empathy is medium. The results of the study indicated that there are statistically significant differences in affective empathy between 8th and 9th grade students in favor of 9th grade students. The results of the study revealed that there are statistically significant differences at the level of significance (α = 0.05) in the overall score of the cognitive and affective empathy scale and in the sub-domains of the scale between males and females in favor of females.