Mediating Effect of Empathy Between Teachers' Knowledge of ADHD and Educational Intervention in Integration Education Classrooms

Monday, 22 July 2013

Wan-Ju Park, RN, PhD
College of Nursing, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, South Korea
Jinhyang Yang, RN, GNP, PhD
Department of Nursing, College of Medicine, Inje University, Pusan, Korea, South Korea
Sung Dong Hwang, PhD
Department of social welfare, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, South Korea

Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to know that Teachers' empathy provided complete mediation between the teachers' knowledge and educational intervention in classrooms.

Learning Objective 2: Results indicated that empathy can positively contribute to educational intervention in ADHD by increasing understanding of ADHD children and situation.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to elucidate how empathy mediates the relationships between the teachers' knowledge of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and educational intervention in the classroom.

Methods: The structural equation modeling was conducted with 334 school teachers in D and Y cities in Korea. Data were collected through self-report questionnaires, which were standardized instruments from April 2012 to July 2012. The data were analyzed by using SPSS Win 20 and AMOS 20, and Sobel and Bootstrapping tests were conducted respectively to determine the significance of mediation and for constructing the confidence interval.

Results: Teachers' empathy provided complete mediation between the teachers' knowledge and educational intervention in classrooms. Results indicated that empathy can positively contribute to educational intervention in ADHD by increasing understanding of ADHD children and situation.

 Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, teachers need to enhance their empathy towards ADHD students to increase their educational intervention for ADHD. These results suggest the importance of intervention for ADHD children that focuses on increasing teachers' empathy in the classroom.