Empathic Tendencies and Attitudes Toward People with Disabilities in Healthy Developing Children and Their Relationship Between Empathic Tendencies of Parents

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate empathic tendencies and attitudes toward people with disabilities in healthy developing children and the relationship between their parents' empathic tendencies.Methods: Fifty-fourth grade primary school students and their parents were included in this study. KA-SI Empathic Tendency Scale-Child Form (KA-SI), Chedoke-Mcmaster Attitudes Towards Children with Handicaps Scale and Empathetic Tendency Scale (ETS) for parents were used.Results: When the total scores were considered, there was a moderate correlation between children's empathic tendencies and attitudes towards the disabled (r=0.594; p<0.0001). Any correlation was not observed among the empathic tendencies of parents and children's empathic tendencies and attitudes towards the disabled (r=0.263 and r=0.270; p>0.05, respectively). Parents with a college degree had a higher level of empathy in their children (p<0.05). Conclusion: In this study, which examined the empathic tendencies of normally developed children and their attitudes towards the disabled and their relationship with the empathic tendencies of their parents, it was concluded that the increase in empathic tendencies of children supported their attitudes towards the disabled in a moderately positive way. The relationship between the level of education of parents and the increase in empathic tendencies of children may indicate the importance of education in this regard. Ensuring the development of children in terms of empathy and positive attitudes and improving the education levels of parents can support the participation of people with disabilities into life by supporting positive attitudes towards them.Keywords: Empathic tendency, attitude towards the disabled, social participation, occupational therapy