THE VARIATION OF EMPATHY IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS FROM MAR DEL PLATA AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC AND ACADEMIC FACTORS, AND THE LEVEL OF PERCEIVED STRESS

Abstract

Empathy is an expected attribute in the context of health because it affects the quality of
diagnosis and the efficacy of treatment. Different universities have looked at the variability
of empathy during undergraduate training, and many studies have reported a significant
decrease in empathy levels in advanced students. Faced with this, the general objective of
this work was to analyze the variability of empathy in university students from different
careers and establish its relationship with sociodemographic and academic factors and the
level of perceived stress. A socio-demographic and academic questionnaire, the
Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), were applied to
a sample of 651 students from the National University of Mar del Plata. Significant
differences were found according to gender, age, career and year of study; in addition, a
positive association was found between the level of perceived stress and emotional
empathy.