Relationship of empathy and gender in prosocial and aggressive behavior in adolescents from different types of educational establishments. Relación de la empatía y género en la conducta prosocial y agresiva, en adolescentes de distintos tipos de establecimientos educacionales.

Abstract

The objective of this research was to analyze the relationship between empathy and gender with prosocial and aggressive behaviors. The sample comprised of 402 teenagers, 13 to 15 years old, selected by means of an sampling of different types of schools available in the city. The obtained results corroborate those relationships. Comparative analyses for men and women demonstrated that women showed more prosocial empathy and less aggressiveness than men. Furthermore, the teenagers from the three main types of educational institutions were no differences in aggressive behavior but students belonging to paid institutions showed greater empathy and prosocial behaviors than municipal or government-assisted educational institutions.