Research into the empathetic skills of adolescents and parents and their evaluation of family structures

The research was conducted to examine the empathetic skills of adolescentsand their parents, and their evaluation of family structures. It looked into thecorrelation between the empathetic skill levels and the evaluations.The sample was composed of high-school adolescents studying in Ankara,and their parents. The sampling included 300 adolescents at the second grade ofhigh-schools and their parents (300 mothers, 300 fathers). A DemographicInformation Form, the Empathetic Skills Scale-Form B and the Tool for EvaluatingFamily Structure were used to collect data, which were then analysed using the SPSS11,5 and ANOVA & Pearson correlation coefficient.The research results revealed that there was no significant correlation betweenthe empathetic skills of adolescents? parents and their evaluation of the familystructure (p>.05). The empathetic skill level of adolescents is higher than that oftheir parents. Father?s educational status and the group (adolescent, or being one ofthe parents) had a significant effect on empathetic skills (p<.05, p<01). The effect ofsocio-economic level, adolescent?s gender and birth order, mother?s age, theeducational status of the mother and father, the number of mother?s and father?sbrothers and sisters, and father?s birth order on TEFS unity was found significant(p<.05, p<01).At the end of the research, several recommendations were made for parents andvarious institutions.