THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMPATHY AND FRIENDSHIP QUALITY IN YOUNG ADULTS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v5.i6.2024.5897Keywords:
Empathy, Friendship Quality, Empathetic Relationship, Young Adults, Emerging AdultsAbstract [English]
Objectives: Despite the fact that social media has numerous negative side effects, it cannot be denied that it has helped in making the nexus of individuals stronger. We live in a networked society where relationships are power. It is high time to find out whether Empathy, a basic human trait can influence the quality of friendships that one forms online.
Methods: 197 emerging adults have been selected by means of purposive sampling from emerging adults in and around the city of Kolkata, West Bengal, India by keeping in mind certain criteria. They were given self report inventories of Perth Empathy Questionnaire (PES) and Friendship Quality on Social Network Sites Questionnaire (FQSNSQ) and data was collected accordingly.
Results: There is a positive and significant relationship between the two variables – empathy and friendship quality at 0.01 levels. Empathy explained approximately 23% of the variance of the Friendship Quality. for each point increase in Empathy, the predicted Friendship Quality will increase by approximately 2.4 points.
Conclusion: There is a moderate and positive relationship between empathy and friendship quality meaning that friendship quality improves with the increase in empathy within the individual.
References
Berndt, T. J. (2002). Friendship quality and social development. Current directions in psychological science, 11(1), 7-10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00157
Brett, J., Becerra, R., Maybery, M., & Preece, D. (2022). Perth Empathy Scale (PES): Copy of questionnaire and scoring instructions. Collins, F. M. (2014). The relationship between social media and empathy DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/t89120-000
Chow, C. M., Ruhl, H., & Buhrmester, D. (2013). The mediating role of interpersonal competence between adolescents' empathy and friendship quality: A dyadic approach. Journal of adolescence, 36(1), 191-200. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2012.10.004
Ciarrochi, J., Parker, P. D., Sahdra, B. K., Kashdan, T. B., Kiuru, N., & Conigrave, J. (2017). When empathy matters: The role of sex and empathy in close friendships. Journal of personality, 85(4), 494-504. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12255
De Wied, M., Branje, S. J., & Meeus, W. H. (2007). Empathy and conflict resolution in friendship relations among adolescents. Aggressive Behavior: Official Journal of the International Society for Research on Aggression, 33(1), 48-55. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20166
Eggermont, K., Bastin, M., Luyckx, K., & Claes, L. (2021). Do gender and age moderate the relationship between friendship quality and non-suicidal self-injury in community children and adolescents?. Psychologica Belgica, 61(1), 315. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/pb.1067
Elliott, R., Bohart, A. C., Watson, J. C., & Greenberg, L. S. (2011). Empathy. Psychotherapy, 48(1), 43. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022187
Fan, T., & Bellmore, A. (2023). Connecting feelings of school belonging to high school students’ friendship quality profiles. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 40(8), 2488-2511. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075231151952
Foody, M., McGuire, L., Kuldas, S., & O’Higgins Norman, J. (2019). Friendship quality and gender differences in association with cyberbullying involvement and psychological well-being. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 1723. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01723
Ford, R. M., & Aberdein, B. (2015). Exploring social influences on the joint Simon task: Empathy and friendship. Frontiers in psychology, 6, 962. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00962
Harris, Kelci, and Simine Vazire. "On friendship development and the Big Five personality traits." Social and Personality Psychology Compass 10, no. 11 (2016): 647-667. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12287
Huelsnitz, C. O., Neel, R., & Human, L. J. (2020). Accuracy in perceptions of fundamental social motives: Comparisons to perceptions of big five traits and associations with friendship quality. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 46(1), 3-19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167219838546
Jamil, R., Gragg, M. N., & DePape, A. M. (2017). The broad autism phenotype: Implications for empathy and friendships in emerging adults. Personality and Individual Differences, 111, 199-204. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.02.020
Jones, S. M., Bodie, G. D., & Hughes, S. D. (2019). The impact of mindfulness on empathy, active listening, and perceived provisions of emotional support. Communication Research, 46(6), 838-865 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650215626983
Lee, P. H., & Shin, Y. (2018). The relationship between attachment and children's friendship network and friendship quality: Focusing on the mediating effect of empathy. Family and Environment Research, 56(2), 123-131. DOI: https://doi.org/10.6115/fer.2018.009
Meuwese, R., Cillessen, A. H., & Güroğlu, B. (2017). Friends in high places: A dyadic perspective on peer status as predictor of friendship quality and the mediating role of empathy and prosocial behavior. Social Development, 26(3), 503-519. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12213
Pew Research Centre. (August 6,2015). Teens, Technology and Friendships.
Portt, E., Person, S., Person, B., Rawana, E., & Brownlee, K. (2020). Empathy and positive aspects of adolescent peer relationships: A scoping review. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 29, 2416-2433. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-020-01753-x
Prot, S., Gentile, D. A., Anderson, C. A., Suzuki, K., Swing, E., Lim, K. M., Horiuchi. Y., Jelic, M., Krahé, B., Liuqing, W., Liau, A.K., Khoo, A., Petrescu, P.D., Sakamoto, A., Tajima, S., Toma, R.A., Warburton, W., Zhang, X., & Lam, B. C. P. (2014). Long-term relations among prosocial-media use, empathy, and prosocial behavior. Psychological science, 25(2), 358-368. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613503854
Schlenker, B. R., & Britt, T. W. (2001). Strategically controlling information to help friends: Effects of empathy and friendship strength on beneficial impression management. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37(5), 357-372. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1006/jesp.2000.1454
Smith, R. L. (2015). Adolescents' emotional engagement in friends' problems and joys: Associations of empathetic distress and empathetic joy with friendship quality, depression, and anxiety. Journal of adolescence, 45, 103-111. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2015.08.020
Soucie, K. M., Lawford, H., & Pratt, M. W. (2012). Personal stories of empathy in adolescence and emerging adulthood. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly (1982-), 141-158. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/mpq.2012.0010
Verswijvel, K., Heirman, W., Hardies, K., & Walrave, M. (2018). Designing and validating the friendship quality on social network sites questionnaire. Computers in Human Behavior, 86, 289-298. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.04.050
Wagner, L. (2019). Good character is what we look for in a friend: Character strengths are positively related to peer acceptance and friendship quality in early adolescents. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 39(6), 864-903. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431618791286
Worthen, M. F. (1999). The role of empathy in adolescent friendship. The University of Texas at Dallas.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Pritha Mondal, Dr. Shivani Santosh
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
With the licence CC-BY, authors retain the copyright, allowing anyone to download, reuse, re-print, modify, distribute, and/or copy their contribution. The work must be properly attributed to its author.
It is not necessary to ask for further permission from the author or journal board.
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
