The Role of Anger, Life Satisfaction, and Coping with Stress in Predicting Empathic Tendencies of School Administrators

Abstract

The current study aims to examine the extent to which anger expression styles, life satisfaction, and levels of coping with stress in school administrators predict their levels of empathic tendency. Also, it aims to examine school administrators’ views on empathy, anger, life satisfaction, and social support. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used to collect data. This type of research design is called mixed or triangulation method. Research participants included school administrators employed in the city of Adıyaman. Quantitative data group participants were totally 252 (_age = 42.30, Ss = 6.23, range = 30-59) school administrators including 241 males (95.6%) and 11 females (4.4%). 241 (95.6%) participants were married and 11 (4.4%) were single. It was found that 67.5% (170) of the participants had BA degrees; 25% (63) had MA degrees; 7.1% (18) had associate degrees; and one participant (0.4%) had a PhD. Within the qualitative data collection in the current research, totally 10 (_age = 43.70, Ss = 5.1, range = 36-51) school administrators including 8 males and 2 females were interviewed through semi-structured interview form. All participants in this group were married. 4 participants had BA and 6 had MA degrees. The data was collected through the “Empathic Tendency Scale”, “The State-Trait Anger Scale”, “Satisfaction with Life Scale”, “Ways of Coping Inventory”, and “Semi-structured Interview Form”. Descriptive statistics, Pearson Moment Product Correlation, and Hierarchical Linear Multi Regression Analyses were used to analyze the qualitative data in the current research. Data analysis was conducted through IBM SPSS 15.0 software package. Descriptive statistics, Pearson Moment Product Correlation, and Hierarchical Linear Multi Regression Analyses were used to analyze the qualitative data in the current research. Data analysis was conducted through IBM SPSS 15.0 software package. Four different regression models were obtained through hierarchical multiple regression analysis results based on Empathic Tendency Scale scores within the quantitative research data. According to this, a review of R² values indicated that Empathic tendency, Anger-in sub-dimension of The State-Trait Anger Scale (STAS) explained within the 13%; this increased up to 21% with the addition of Satisfaction with Life Scale in the analysis and up to 26% with the addition of Anger-control as sub-dimension of STAS. It went up to 29% with the addition of receiving social support sub-dimension of Ways of Coping Inventory (WCI) in the analysis. It was seen that qualitative findings supported the quantitative findings. Based on qualitative findings, thus, leading factor among those affecting empathic skills was anger. Stress, life style, and life experiences followed this. Things that made the school administrators the angriest included teachers coming in the classroom late, do not teach, staff ignoring their responsibilities, and teachers not fulfilling their responsibilities. Also, majority of the school administrators were found to be unable to empathize in anger. It was found that when in anger school administrators Postpone appointment, tried to understand what was going on, left the environment briefly, tried to control anger, tried not to talk, and raised their voices.