THE STUDY OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN 11-12 YEAR-OLD SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ EMPATHY SKILLS AND SELF-ESTEEM LEVELS

The present study is conducted to determine the relationship between 11-12 year-old Turkish secondary school students' empathy skills and self-esteem levels. General screening model is used within the study. The study is conducted with 478 11-12 year-old students who were attending 5th and 6th grades in Ankara, Turkey. In order to collect data the following tools are applied to students; Personal Information Form, CooperSmith Self-Esteem Inventory- SEl and Index of Empathy for Children. According to the findings of the study, the differences regarding gender were statistically meaningful in favor of 11-12 year-old girls. Their empathy skills and social self-esteem levels are found higher than those of 11-12 year-old boys. Moreover, a positive relation is observed between students' empathy and self-esteem scores. Accordingly, students with high empathy skills are also found to have high self-esteem levels.