Emotion regulation: A useful predictor of empathy in medical students

Background: Recent research has shown that emotion regulation (ER) is a predictive factor of academic performance and well-being in medical students. However, little is known about the specific relationship between difficulties in ER and empathy in the medical education context. Summary of work: This study was designed to determine whether difficulties in ER were associated with empathy in a sample of Italian second-year medical students. A negative correlation between difficulties in ER and empathy was expected. Summary of results: A convenience sample of 389 second-year medical students (female=207; main age=19.93, SD=1.39) completed the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy – Student Version (JSE-S), and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) at the beginning of the academic year. To test the statistical association between ER difficulties and empathy levels, multiple linear regression was performed with the predictive analytics software SPSS 24 for Mac. Our research hypothesis was confirmed. DERS scores explained 8.4% variance in medical students’ empathy. Controlling for the effect of gender and age, lack of emotional awareness (B=0.726; p<0.001) and lack of emotional clarity (B=-0.496; p<0.05) subscales showed a significant negative relationship with medical empathy scores. Discussions and conclusions: Difficulties in emotion regulation negatively correlated with empathy levels in medical students. Take-home messages: For improving and maintaining students’ empathy levels, medical educators should provide a set of ER strategies to their students during medical school. This would help them to be aware of their own and others’ emotions during the emotionally demanding encounters with patients.