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Choi, Lim, and Yoo: A Study on the Relationship among Family Functioning, Empathy, and Aggression by High School Students
Original Article

Journal of Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing 2013; 24(4): 480-487.

Published online: 31 December 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12799/jkachn.2013.24.4.480

A Study on the Relationship among Family Functioning, Empathy, and Aggression by High School Students

Hee Jung Choi1, Eun Sun Lim2, Jang Hak Yoo3

1Department of Nursing, Mokpo Catholic University, Mokpo, Korea.

2Department of Nursing, Hyejeon College, Hongseong, Korea.

3Department of Nursing, JEI College, Incheon, Korea.

Corresponding author: Yoo, Jang Hak. Department of Nursing, JEI College, 178, Jaeneung-ro, Dong-gu, Incheon, Seoul 401-714, Korea. Tel: +82-32-890-7406, Fax: +82-32-890-7329, janghryu@jeiu.ac.kr

Received 29 November 2013       Revised 18 December 2013       Accepted 20 December 2013

© 2013 Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among family functioning, empathy and aggression by high school students.

Methods

This was a descriptive study. The survey participants were 467 high school students from M city. Data were collected from November 29 to December 7, 2012 and self-report questionnaires including a Family Adaptability Cohesion Evaluation Scale, Interpersonal Reactivity Indexes, and an Aggression Questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-test, ANOVA, stepwise multiple regression.

Results

The majority of the subjects were 2nd graders (42.0%) and female (57.2%). 59.7% of the subjects had religion, 84.8% were living together with parents. The mean ages of their fathers and mothers were 49.90±0.20 and 46.85±0.19 respectively. Aggression was found to have a statistically negative correlation with family functioning and empathy. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the most powerful predictor of aggression was empathic concern. Empathic concern, family cohesiveness, perspective taking, personal distress and gender accounted for 16.7% of the variances.

Conclusion

It is necessary to provide aggressiveness reduction programs for high school students that consider their family functioning and empathy.

Keywords: Aggression, Family, Empathy, Students

Figures and Tables

Table 1
Difference of Family Functioning, Aggression, and Empathy according to Subject Characteristics
jkachn-24-480-i001

†Mann-whitney.

Table 2
The Correlations among Family Functioning, Aggression, and Aggression in the Subjects
jkachn-24-480-i002
Table 3
Influencing Factors on the Aggression
jkachn-24-480-i003

Total R2=16.7.

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