Comparison of Effectiveness of Empathy Training and Social Perspective-Taking Training on Emotional Intelligence of Adolescents with Cyber Bullying

Research has shown that bullying in cyberspace has negative consequences on adolescentschr('39') educational performance and there is an inverse relationship between emotional intelligence and bullying; therefore, the purpose of this study was to comparison of effectiveness of empathy training and social perspective-taking training on emotional intelligence of adolescents with cyber bullying.

Methods and Materials: 

This experimental study was conducted with a pretest-posttest design with control group and follow-up one month. The statistical population of this study included all the female students high school in Bushehr city in year academic 2018-2019 and 45 students were considered as the sample size in two experimental groups (each group of 15 student) and control (15 student). The experimental groups underwent empathy training (10 sessions 90 minutes) and social perspective-taking training (10 sessions 90 minutes), but the control group received no training and remained in the waiting list. To collect data cyber bullying questionnaire of Antoniadou, Kokkinos and Markos (2016) and modified emotional intelligence scale of Schutte and et al (1998). Data analysis was performed using SPSS-24 software in two sections: descriptive and inferential (analysis of variance with repeated measures and Bonferroni).

The results of the study showed that both types of treatment in post-test and follow up had a significant effect on emotional intelligence of adolescents with cyber bullying (P<0.05). Also, social perspective-taking training had stronger effects than empathy training in improvement of emotional intelligence (P<0.05).

Based on the results of this study, it can be said that social perspective-taking training and empathy training can be used as a treatment to improvement of emotional intelligence in educational and therapeutic settings.