The purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating effect of self-acceptance in the relationship between counsellors' attachment and empathic ability.
For this study, 274 counsellors with minimum one-year experience participated. They are n...
The purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating effect of self-acceptance in the relationship between counsellors' attachment and empathic ability.
For this study, 274 counsellors with minimum one-year experience participated. They are now working at youth counselling centers, private counseling centers and counselling centers in some universities etc. located in Seoul and Gyeonggi province. Some scales including ECR-R(Experiences in Close Relationships Scale-revised), USAQ(Unconditional Self-Acceptance Questionnaire), IRI(Interpersonal Reactivity Index) were used as assessment instruments, and, for statistical analysis, SPSS20 and AMOS20 were adopted.
The result of this study are as follows.
First, no significant correlations were found between avoidant attachment and empathic ability whereas positive correlations were identified between insecure attachment and empathic ability. Positive correlations are also observed between self-acceptance and empathic ability.
Second, Self-Acceptance presented the mediating effect in the relationship between insecure attachment and empathic ability. In other words, insecure attachment affects empathic ability through self-acceptance as well as it influences empathic ability directly. This suggests that self -acceptance plays an important role when insecure attachment improves empathic ability. But avoidant attachment presents no mediating effect with empathic ability. And, this paper ends with a discussion on the significance and limits of this study as well as future directions of subsequent studies.