Guariglia, P.; Palmiero, M.; Giannini, A.M.; Piccardi, L. The Key Role of Empathy in the Relationship between Age and Social Support. Healthcare2023, 11, 2464.
Guariglia, P.; Palmiero, M.; Giannini, A.M.; Piccardi, L. The Key Role of Empathy in the Relationship between Age and Social Support. Healthcare 2023, 11, 2464.
Guariglia, P.; Palmiero, M.; Giannini, A.M.; Piccardi, L. The Key Role of Empathy in the Relationship between Age and Social Support. Healthcare2023, 11, 2464.
Guariglia, P.; Palmiero, M.; Giannini, A.M.; Piccardi, L. The Key Role of Empathy in the Relationship between Age and Social Support. Healthcare 2023, 11, 2464.
Abstract
Aging involves several changes depending on genetic and behavioural factors, such as lifestyle and number and quality of social relationships, which in turn can be influenced by empathy. Here, the change in the perceived social support across the life span as a function of empathy was investigated, considering the mediating role of the empathy, after controlling for gender and education. 441 people (18-91 years old) filled in the Italian short version of the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL-12) and the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ6) as well as the Empathy Questionnaire (EQ) and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (RMET). The mediation analyses with ISEL-12 showed that age and the EQ fully mediated the relationship between age and Appraisal, Belonging and Tangible scores. Further, the EQ fully mediated only the relationship between age and SSQ6-People. These results showed that empathic skills play a key role in the relationships between age and social support. This suggests: empathy can trigger social support and ultimately well-being if stimulated across the lifespan, especially since young age; this would help to form the socio-emotional competence across the years, as a sort of cushion that can be useful in the elderly to fulfil active aging.
Keywords
well-being; affective support; community engagement; ageing; mental health; socio-emotional skills
Subject
Public Health and Healthcare, Other
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
