[Empathy in children aged 10 to 12 years]

The objectives of this research were: 1) to determine whether there were differences in empathy according to gender; 2) to analyze the relationships between empathy and social behaviour, self-concept, emotional stability, social interaction strategies, capacity to analyze emotions, intelligence, and creativity; and 3) to identify predicting variables of empathy. The sample consisted of 139 participants aged 10 to 12 years. ANOVA results showed gender differences in empathy, with significantly higher scores in females. Pearson coefficients suggest that participants with high empathy showed many positive social behaviours (prosocial, assertive, consideration, self-control, leadership), few negative social behaviors (passive, aggressive, antisocial, withdrawal) and many assertive strategies of social interaction; that they were named as prosocial classmates; and that they had high self-concept, high capacity to analyze negative emotions, high emotional stability and many behaviors and traits of creative personality. Multiple regression analyses permitted identification of the following predicting variables of empathy: high level of prosocial behaviour, low level of aggressive behaviour and high self-concept.