Developing empathy and socio-emotional wellbeing in emerging adulthood: a mixed-methods longitudinal study of an empathy training among Chinese male STEM students

To examine the impact of an empathy training on the development of empathy and social-emotional wellbeing of Chinese emerging adults, the current study applied a mixed-methods design using short-term longitudinal data. Two hundred and forty five STEM male college students (M = 18.22, SD = 0.82) were randomly assigned to a control group and treatment group. The treatment group completed a 21-day empathy training, including two in-person group training sessions, ten journal entries, and three exercises. Participants' empathy capacity (i.e., cognitive and affective empathy), life satisfaction, prosocial behaviors, and interpersonal relationships (i.e., with parents, male, and female friends) were measured four times (i.e., pre-test, immediate post-test, three-month follow-up, and six-month follow-up). Among participants who completed the entire training, 23 were randomly selected for group interview to explore their observed changes during and after the training and mechanisms of the changes. Linear mixed-effects models were conducted to examine the changes in quantitative data and inductive analysis was conducted for qualitative analysis. Quantitative results and qualitative findings converged. The findings supported the effectiveness of empathy training. After the training, participants showed increased cognitive empathy, higher life satisfaction, more prosocial behaviors, and better relationships with parents and friends. Additionally, participants reported having improved emotion states. Participants attributed the positive changes to the training and the usage of empathy. The findings extend understanding of how empathy may develop in emerging adulthood within a STEM context and suggest a cost-effective, sustainable approach to supporting social–emotional development.