Relationship Between The Structure Of Empathy And Family Dynamics Of Depression

Depression is a common psychiatric disease with significant impairments in quality of life and psychosocial function.Efficacy in relieving the core symptoms of depression does not necessarily guarantee efficacy in relieving impaired social function.Recent studies suggest depression is associated with family dynamics.On the basis of Chinese culture background and foreign studies of empathy,using literature analysis,interview method,open questionnaire and questionnaire survey,we proposed the questionnaire of empathy of depression.We developed a four-component construction of empathy.We used the independent sample T test and one-way analysis of variance to analyze the differences of demographic variables in the dimensions of empathy among different depression.We adopted correlation analysis and regression analysis to explore the relationship between the empathy and family dynamics.And we also discussed if the empathy had significant influence on family dynamics.The study reaches conclusions as follows:Firstly,organizing the empathy questionnaire includes fourteen items, and the structure of it is composed of four dimensions:cognitive- concern, cognitive-sensitivity,emotional-concern and emotional-sensitivity.This questionnaire has good reliability and validity.Secondly,depressive score of depression is extremely correlated with empathy.Empathy of depression is different significantly in some demographic variable(such as in educational level,disease course, educational level of parents).Third,depressive score of depression is extremely correlated with family dynamics.The families with depression patients have comparative dull,dreary atmosphere,lower individuation and using less "Both…and…" system's logic.Fourth,empathy of depression is extremely correlated with family dynamics.Different dimensions of empathy of depression have relative significance to family dynamics.