Investigation of the Relationship Between the Empathic Tendency Skills and Problem Solving Skills of Turkish Primary School Students

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate whether there is a relationship between empathy tendency skills and problem solving skills of 10 year old Turkish primary school students. At the same time, it is aimed to find out whether these students 'empathy level and problem solving ability differ according to the student's gender, number of siblings, socioeconomic level, parental age and parents' educational status. The study sample constitutes 418 fourth grade students from three primary schools in the city of Izmir, Turkey. In the study, the KA-SI Empathy Tendency Scale-Child Form developed by Kaya and Siyez (2010) and Problem Solving Inventory is developed by Serin, Bulut-Serin, Saygılı (2010). Independent Groups t Test, One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Kruksal Wallis H Test; Tukey and Mann Whitney U Test in determining which groups differ; Pearson Product Moment Correlation Analysis was applied to determine the relationship between groups. The findings of the study showed that there is a positive directional medium-strong relationship between the empathy score of the students and the confidence in problem solving skills and problem solving scores. There is a very weak positive relationship between empathy and avoidance score. It is thought that the results obtained in the research can contribute to the programs that will be prepared in order to develop empathy and problem solving skills in children.