Approaches To Developing Empathy Among Youth With Troubled Behavior

Ability to communicate, to show emotions and well-developed empathy are necessary for professional self-determination, confident behavior in various situational roles and building healthy interpersonal relationships. Teachers’ knowledge and understanding of empathy among children of different age groups are often fragmented or have a "mosaic" nature. Currently, the problem of developing empathy among adolescents with troubled behavior has not been studied enough. The present article consists of three parts. Part one reveals the theoretical basis for the development of empathy among adolescents with troubled behavior. The second part of the article is devoted to our empirical research: 44 teenagers with troubled behavior took part in the research. Davis’s Inerpersonal Reactivity Index Test (IRI) and Boyko’s test for assessing the level of empathic abilities were applied within this study. According to the applied materials empathy is considered as a multifaceted system of reactions of one individual to the observed events / state of another. During the experiment some extra-curricular activities for the development of empathy were carried out. The classes for adolescents with troubled behavior have been specifically developed. In the third part of the article there is an analysis of the findings and the conclusion. Empathetic teenagers can communicate and negotiate more quickly, and thus adapt in society more effectively.