How adolescent empathy and prosocial behavior change in the context of school culture: a two-year longitudinal study

To study changes in empathy, prosocial behavior, and school culture, 30 students were examined twice within two years.Two samples were employed to ensure a wide range of school culture perceptions; students were in a traditional high school or a Just Community School. Nonparametric bootstrap resampling methods were used to test for differences between schools and between years one and two. Just Community students perceived their school's culture as more positive than traditional high school students but no differences in empathy or prosocial behavior were found between schools. Change scores in school culture were correlated with change scores in empathy but not with prosocial behavior. This suggests that changes in empathy might require more opportunities for adolescents to exercise cognitive and emotional responsiveness in their day-to-day lives.