The Mediating Role of Communication in the Relationship Between Personality Type and Empathy Among Clinical Stage...

This study aimed to investigate the association between personality type and empathy levels among dental students and to determine whether communication skills serve as a potential mediator in this relationship.

This cross-sectional study was conducted with 272 clinical stage dental students (fourth and fifth year) from two universities in Türkiye during the 2024-2025 academic year. Data were collected using a web-based questionnaire that included the Personality Inventory, the short form of the Communication Skills Inventory, and the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy-Student version (JSPE-S). Descriptive and inferential analyses were performed using IBM SPSS version 23 software. Mediation analysis was conducted using Process Macro version 4.2 (Model 4) with 5.000 bootstrap samples.

Personality type was weakly negatively correlated with communication skills (r = -0.229, p < 0.001) and very weakly with empathy levels (r = -0.147, p = 0.015). A moderate positive correlation was observed between communication skills and empathy scores (r = 0.416, p < 0.001). Regression analysis showed that personality type was significantly associated with empathy levels (p = 0.04), although this association became nonsignificant (p = 0.911) when communication skills were added to the model. Communication skills remained significantly associated with empathy levels (p < 0.001), a one-unit increase in communication being associated with a 0.987-unit increase in empathy levels. The indirect association (-0.1) was significant, indicating a potential mediating role of communication skills.

Communication skills may mediate the association between personality type and empathy levels among clinical stage dental students. These findings emphasize the importance of integrating communication skills training into dental education to support the development of empathic competence. However, the interpretation of personality-related findings should be approached with caution due to the limited internal consistency of the personality inventory used in this sample.