Poster #78 - A Values-Alignment Empathy Training Intervention to Reduce Relational Aggression Among Adolescents

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

Empathy training may be a promising avenue to curtail peer-directed relational aggression during adolescence (Ackermann et al., 2012), a sensitive window where empathy is still developing (Crone & Fuligni, 2020). Nevertheless, at present, there is no scientific consensus on best strategies to teach empathy in older adolescence (Durlak et al., 2011). One meta-analytic review found that interventions have weak to null effects in older adolescence as they encroach upon developmentally-salient desires for autonomy (Yeager et al., 2018).

To bridge these gaps, the present research (N = 101) developed a novel values-alignment empathy training aimed at harnessing adolescents’ developmentally-salient values for autonomy to promote empathy. Values-alignment approaches strive to make desirable behaviours congruous with stable values (Bryan, 2020) and has been leveraged to increase adolescents’ healthy eating (Bryan et al., 2016) and social media self-control (Galla et al., 2021). This study translated this new intervention approach to a novel problem area: peer relational aggression arising from shortfalls in empathy.

We evaluated effects of the single-session intervention at reducing relational aggression among Singaporean older adolescents (Mage = 17.45, 73.3% girls, 87.1% Chinese), in a randomised controlled experiment. Relational aggression was measured post-intervention via: (i) a hypothetical vignette, and (ii) a novel virtual peer interactive paradigm, inspired by chatroom tasks (Silk et al., 2012).

We further explored moderating effects of competitive interdependence in the relationship, to illuminate how motivations for competitiveness may play into receptivity to empathy training. We expected that values-alignment empathy training might reduce relational aggression, with pronounced effects amongst adolescents with higher competitive interdependence.

Logistic regression analysis revealed that empathy training significantly predicted post-intervention behavioural relational aggression, b = -1.36, p = .0271, OR = 0.78, 95%CI[0.43, 1.43]. Specifically, adolescents who received the values-alignment empathy training were 22% less likely to exhibit relational aggression in the virtual interactive paradigm, relative to active control. Linear regression further revealed a significant Condition×Competitive Interdependence interaction on post-intervention self-reported relational aggression scores, b = 0.63, β = 0.28, t(94) = 2.12, p = .037. Subsequently, simple effects of training condition were probed at high and low levels of competitive interdependence. Among students with high levels of competitive interdependence (1 SD above sample mean), empathy training was not significantly predictive of self-reported relational aggression, b = 0.44, β = 0.16 , t(94) = 1.04, p = .302. Conversely, among students with low levels of competitive interdependence (1 SD below sample mean), empathy training significantly predicted self-reported relational aggression, b = -0.82, β = 0.41 , t(94) = -2.00, p = .048. Specifically, those with lower competitive interdependence in the empathy training condition reported significantly lower relational aggression (Mempathy = 2.34, SDempathy = 0.51) than control counterparts (Mcontrol =3.15, SDcontrol = 0.47). Findings suggest that immediate benefits of empathy training were observed only among adolescents who construe and behave in the social environment through less competitive lenses.

As the first early-stage investigation of whether values-alignment can be translated into empathy training, the promising findings holds important translational and theoretical implications for the development of empathy training.

Authors

• Meryl Yu, Yale-NUS College
  Presenting Author

• Hae Yeon Lee, National University of Singapore and Yale-NUS College