Relationship of Bullying with Affective and Cognitive Empathy among Adolescents

Bullying is a common issue experienced by adolescents worldwide. This makes it essential to look into the emotional aspects exhibited by those involved in such acts. Empathy is one such variable which can possibly promote either pro-bullying or anti-bullying behaviors. Thus, the present study aims to investigate the relationship between bullying and empathy. For this purpose, a sample consisting of 614 adolescents of age 12-18 years were drawn from various schools of Jammu, J & K. The required data was collected using Basic Empathy Scale (Jolliffe and Farrington, 2005) and Illinois Bully Scale (Espelage and Holt, 2001). The data was analyzed using Pearson product moment correlation. The results obtained indicate significant negative relationship between bullying, affective empathy and cognitive empathy.