A study of the relationship between empathy and creativity in Colombian students and their educational implications

The importance of cognitive and emotional variables in learning is undeniable. The present work seeks to analyze the relationship between the empathy and creativity variables in a sample of 65 Colombian students (12.72 +/- 1.57 years old, distributed between 10 and 16 years old) according to age and gender. We used a descriptive and correlational design, as well as a quasi-experimental design based on the objectives of the analysis. The results show that there is a statistically significant and negative correlation between age and the cognitive dimension of empathy, just like this with creativity. In addition, there is a significant and positive correlation between age and creativity and age and affective empathy. On the other hand, analyzes of correlations isolating groups according to gender reflect more affective empathy in the female than in the male gender. Considering the correlations separating the age ranges, it was observed that in the older students (14-16 years) there is a statistically significant and positive correlation between creativity and cognitive empathy. Regarding comparisons between groups of independent samples, we found that cognitive empathy is higher in the 10 to 13 age group, and that overall empathy is greater in the female gender. The results found in this study are discussed and the Educational implications.