Supporting students with empathy: the association between empathy and coping strategies in pre-clinical medical students

How medical students cope with stress predicts their mental health and academic/clinical performances, making the promotion of functional copy strategies a relevant outcome for medical educators. Empathy has been reported to be connected with coping. This study wanted to explore the most used coping strategies and whether gender differences existed, and to investigate whether and to what extent empathy affected coping in a sample of pre-clinical medical students. In a cross-sectional study design, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Coping Orientations to the Problems Experienced - New Italian Version (COPE-NIV) were administered to 398 (53% females) Italian second-year medical students. T-tests and multiple regression analyses were used to explore gender differences and the association between IRI and COPE-NIV scores, respectively. Problem Orientation obtained the highest mean score, whereas Avoidance the lowest one. Females outscored males on Social Support (t = 4.95, p <.001) and Transcendent Orientation (t = 4.04, p <.001). After controlling for gender, Empathic Concern was positively associated with Social Support (β = 0.223, p =.001) and Transcendent Orientation (β = 0.234, p =.001). Perspective Taking was positively and negatively associated with Positive Attitude (β = 0.248, p <.001) and Transcendent Orientation (β = − 0.180, p =.008), respectively. Personal Distress was negatively related to Problem Orientation (β = − 0.250, p <.001). Educational and psychological counselling interventions targeting empathy should be implemented in the pre-clinical years to equip medical students to cope functionally with the emotional distress linked to medical school.