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Hearts and minds: aspects of empathy and wellbeing in social work students

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Abstract

Although empathy is critical to social work practice, the extent to which it can be measured, nurtured or taught is hotly debated. Furthermore, definitions of empathy are typically one-dimensional referring to the ability to adopt the perspective of others in order to understand their feelings, thoughts or actions. Such definitions do not adequately reflect the realities of empathy in the social work context or recognise its potential to lead to distress. This study utilises data from 359 social work students to examine relationships between several dimensions of empathy (i.e. perspective taking, concern and distress), reflective ability and wellbeing with a view to using the findings to develop evidence-based interventions to help staff develop appropriate empathic responses to service users' experiences. Whilst students reported fairly high levels of empathic concern, they also disclosed considerable empathic distress. Some evidence was found that reflective ability might protect social work students from empathic distress. Findings suggest that students require support to develop their empathic and reflective skills to effectively manage the emotional demands of practice. The use of techniques such as mindfulness and experiential learning for enhancing such skills is explored. © 2013 © 2013 Taylor & Francis.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 338-352

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Social Work Education (Volume 33, Issue 3)

Publication milestones

  • Published - 14/06/2013

Publication status

Published - 14/06/2013

ISSN

0261-5479

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/624287
  • Scopus: 84893938916

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