Exploring the Relationship between Empathy, Depression and Gender in Adolescents using Reported Causes of Depression

Objective: Depressive disorders represent a significant burden on mental health care services across the globe, with many cases starting during adolescence. Recent literature provides evidence that both high and low empathy may be risk factors for depression. This study explores the relationship between empathy and depression in a clinical (n=35) and non-clinical (n=80) sample of adolescents, while taking age and gender into account as potential confounding factors. Method: This study uses data from the Relations and Emotions in Parent-Adolescent Interaction Research (RE-PAIR). Participants filled out the PHQ, the perspective taking and empathic concern scales of the IRI, and parents and adolescents were interviewed surrounding the perceived causes of the adolescents’ depression. ANOVA comparisons were used to establish whether there are meaningful differences between depressed and non-depressed adolescents on measures of empathy while controlling for age and gender. To investigate...Show moreObjective: Depressive disorders represent a significant burden on mental health care services across the globe, with many cases starting during adolescence. Recent literature provides evidence that both high and low empathy may be risk factors for depression. This study explores the relationship between empathy and depression in a clinical (n=35) and non-clinical (n=80) sample of adolescents, while taking age and gender into account as potential confounding factors. Method: This study uses data from the Relations and Emotions in Parent-Adolescent Interaction Research (RE-PAIR). Participants filled out the PHQ, the perspective taking and empathic concern scales of the IRI, and parents and adolescents were interviewed surrounding the perceived causes of the adolescents’ depression. ANOVA comparisons were used to establish whether there are meaningful differences between depressed and non-depressed adolescents on measures of empathy while controlling for age and gender. To investigate whether low or high empathy scores are associated with higher severity of depression, depressed adolescents were divided in three groups for each measure of empathy according to empathy scores and compared in terms of PHQ scores. Finally, adolescents were grouped and compared based on empathy-associated reported causes of depression to determine whether those causes are associated with differences in empathy. Results: There was no association between depression and empathy scores. There was a significant difference on only one item of the IRI, which may drive a false positive correlation between affective empathy and depression. Gender was associated with significant differences in reported empathy scores, as was age. There was no significant relationship between empathy and severity of depression, nor between empathy and reported causes of depression. Conclusion: This study finds limited evidence for the relationship between empathy and depression. It highlights the importance of studying empathy in combination with other factors, and the challenges in measuring empathy in the context of depression. Limitations and implications of the findings are discussed.Show less

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Exploring the Relationship between Empathy, Depression and Gender in Adolescents using Reported Causes of Depression