Relationship between Balanced Emotional Empathy and Life Satisfaction,and Alexithymia in Nurses, Midwives and Operating Room Technicians

• Main Authors: Borzoo Amirpour (Author), Ali Zakie (Author), Maryam Kalhornia Golkar (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Golestan University of Medical Sciences, 2015-12-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 2588-3038
• Keywords: balanced emotional empathy; life satisfaction; alexithymia; Medicine; R; Nursing; RT1-120
• Source: Journal of Research Development in Nursing and Midwifery, Vol 12, Iss 2, Pp 1-8 (2015)

Background and Objective: Alexithymia is a personality trait associated with difficulties in emotion recognition, regulation and emotional processing. However, in the field of health and care, emotions and affects play an important role in the relationship between specialists and patients, and in general, life satisfaction. This study aimed at determining the relationship between balanced emotional empathy and life satisfaction and Alexithymia in Nurses, midwives and operating room technicians. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was undertaken on 300 Nurses, midwives and operating room technicians selected via stratified random sampling in Kermanshah and Hamadan provinces, 2012.the instruments were Emotional Empathy Scale of Mehrabian & Epstein, Life Satisfaction Scale of Diener et al and Toronto alexithymia scale. Using SPSS-18, the data was analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation and simple linear regression. Results: The results indicated that the mean score of alexithymia in midwives (62.19±11.66), life satisfaction in nurses (50.4±85.13) and emotional empathy in nurses (40.12 ± 95.100) was higher. The results showed that both life satisfaction (r=-0.13, P<0.05) and balanced emotional empathy (r=-0.16) had negative significant correlation with alexithymia (p<0.05). Based on regression analysis, life satisfaction (;beta =-0.18) and balanced emotional empathy (;beta =-0.15) were the negative significant predictors of alexithymia. Conclusion: Given the results, we recommend considering the role of empathy in healthcare settings and the enhancement of life satisfaction among hospital staff.