Level of Cognitive-Emotional Empathy and Empathic Concern Predicts the Interpersonal Skills of Students: Basis for an Enhanced Homeroom Guidance Activities

Abstract

The study was conducted to identify the level of students’ profile, cognitive, emotional empathy and empathic concern be a predictive factor of interpersonal skills and constituted the basis for enhanced Homeroom Guidance activities. Using a descriptive correlational design, two hundred (200) Grade 9 students from Sico 1.0 Integrated National High School during school year 2022-2023 were conveniently selected as respondents of the study. Four (4) expert teachers validated the instrument. This study used standardized tests namely: Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) of Davis (1980) with 28 items, and Empathy Formative Questionnaire with 15 items were the questionnaires and answered by a 5-point Likert scale. Interpersonal skills questionnaire was made by the researcher consisting of 35 items. The Pearson Product- Correlation Coefficient was used to analyze the data. The results revealed that cognitive empathy has a high significant relationship (r=.609) and level of the emotional empathy has a moderate positive significant relationship (r=621), while, empathic concern of respondents has a low positive significant relationship to interpersonal skills of respondents (r=.465) at a significance level of 0.01, Sex was significantly associated with emotional empathy at the .05 level of significance. Moreover, monthly income was significantly associated with empathic empathy at the .01 level of significance. Marital status, birth order, and place of residency were not significantly associated with any of the types of empathy. Sex was found to have a significant relationship with interpersonal skills, as indicated by a chi-square value of 9.994 and a p-value of .019. Marital status, birth order, monthly income, and place of residency, on the other hand, did not demonstrate a significant relationship with interpersonal skills. The model as a whole is statistically significant in predicting students' interpersonal skills, as evidenced by the F-value of 51.003 and a p-value less than .01. This suggests that the combination of cognitive empathy, emotional empathy, and empathic concern significantly contributes to the prediction of students' interpersonal skills.