The Mediating Role of Personality and Gender Roles on the Relationship Between Gender and Empathy: A Study on Preservice Teachers

Teacher empathy is an essential part of teacher professional role, related to various student outcomes. Research have shown that women are more empathetic than men. However, when personality traits or gender roles are included into regression models, gender no longer predicts empathy. Research have pointed to agreeableness and expressiveness as the strongest correlates of empathy among personality traits and gender roles respectively, but these determinants of empathy are still rarely studied in teachers. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine the role of agreeableness and expressiveness in the relationship between gender and empathy on a sample of preservice subject teachers. Two serial mediation models with gender as a predictor, agreeableness and expressiveness as mediators, and empathic concern and perspective taking as criterion variables were tested. Results showed that agreeableness and expressiveness mediated the relationship between gender and empathy. Significant serial mediation effects showed that female preservice teachers reported greater agreeableness, which had a positive effect on expressiveness, which then had a positive effect on empathic concern and perspective taking. Our study indicates that a differentiated approach to empathy training should be used with different groups of preservice teachers, particularly with those who report lower agreeableness and expressiveness.
Nastavnička empatija važan je dio profesionalne uloge nastavnika i povezana je s brojnim ishodima kod učenika. Istraživanja pokazuju da su žene empatičnije od muškaraca, ali rod prestaje biti prediktorom empatije nakon što se u regresijske modele uključe osobine ličnosti ili rodne uloge. Ugodnost i ekspresivnost pokazale su se najsnažnijim korelatima empatije među osobinama ličnosti odnosno rodnim ulogama, no te su determinante empatije još uvijek rijetko istražene kod nastavnika/ca. Stoga je cilj ovog istraživanja ispitati ulogu ugodnosti i ekspresivnosti u odnosu između roda i empatije na uzorku studenata/tica nastavničkog smjera različitih fakulteta. Testirana su dva serijalna medijacijska modela s rodom kao prediktorom, ugodnošću i ekspresivnošću kao medijatorima te aspektima empatije kao kriterijskim varijablama. Rezultati su potvrdili medijacijsku ulogu ugodnosti i ekspresivnosti u odnosu između roda i empatije. Značajni učinci serijalne medijacije pokazali su da su buduće nastavnice iskazale veću ugodnost što je imalo pozitivan učinak na ekspresivnost, a to je potom imalo pozitivan učinak na empatičnu brigu i zauzimanje tuđe perspektive. Rezultati istraživanja ukazuju na potrebu za diferenciranim pristupom treninzima empatije s različitim skupinama budućih nastavnika/ca, posebno s onima koji imaju manje izraženu ugodnost i ekspresivnost.