“I Don’t Care About What You Want!”: The Relation Between Juvenile Delinquents’ Responses to Social Problem Situations and Empathy in Secure Juvenile Institutions

The present study examined the relation between juvenile delinquents’ responses to social problem situations and empathy in secure juvenile institutions. The sample consisted of 79 delinquent boys (62%) and 49 delinquent girls (38%), aged 12 to 19 years. Results showed problems with accepting authority to be negatively related to both affective and cognitive empathy. Inadequate coping with competition was negatively related to cognitive empathy, whereas problems with receiving or giving help were negatively related to affective empathy. The central role of authority problems suggests that group workers could influence adolescents’ empathy development by helping them to learn to cope with social problem situation

“I Don’t Care About What You Want!”:The Relation Between Juvenile Delinquents’ Responses to Social Problem Situations and Empathy in Secure Juvenile Institutions

The present study examined the relation between juvenile delinquents’ responses to social problem situations and empathy in secure juvenile institutions. The sample consisted of 79 delinquent boys (62%) and 49 delinquent girls (38%), aged 12 to 19 years. Results showed problems with accepting authority to be negatively related to both affective and cognitive empathy. Inadequate coping with competition was negatively related to cognitive empathy, whereas problems with receiving or giving help were negatively related to affective empathy. The central role of authority problems suggests that group workers could influence adolescents’ empathy development by helping them to learn to cope with social problem situation

Games [4Therapy] project : let's talk!

20% of Dutch youth suffer from psychiatric disorders that hamper their daily functioning and their personal development. Clients tend to drop out of school and have problems in their social environment. These clients often suffer from low social competencies and low empathic behavior, resulting in low treatment compliance. The study targets treatment motivation in order to prevent therapy dropout by introducing playful interventions.\u3cbr/\u3e\u3cbr/\u3eAmongst others, social problem situations that arise from interactions between clients and their socio-cultural environment often lead to aggressive behavior and behavioral problems. It is not only the client, but also the reaction of the environment that plays an important part in the aggravation of clients’ problems.\u3cbr/\u3e\u3cbr/\u3eWe focus on the group as a whole in order to gain insight these social interactions, to make them explicit and tangible, in an attempt to help clients (and their environment) to play and learn from these interactions, in order to contribute to a better social climate