Perceptions of Compassionate Care and EducationalExperience

Hanjung Kim
8월 25일
5분 분량

최종 수정일: 11월 25일

Keywords: compassion, relationship, behavioral analysts, training, therapeutic relationship

Ⅰ. Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study was to examine how educational experiences and perceptions influence compassion. To this end, graduate students in the fifth semester of a master’s program in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) were surveyed to measure their levels of educational experience and perceptions related to therapeutic relationship skills—factors identified in previous studies as relevant to behavior analysts’ relational competencies—and to analyze the extent to which educational experiences affect empathy as measured by the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (LeBlanc et al., 2020). The study aimed to discuss the need to integrate relational competencies into traditionally skill-focused ABA curricula. The research questions were as follows:(1) Are therapeutic relationship-building skills included in ABA training programs?(2) How do ABA graduate students perceive the therapeutic relationship?(3) What are the compassion levels of ABA graduate students?(4) Do educational experiences influence levels of compassion?

Ⅱ. Method

This exploratory survey study was conducted with fifth-semester graduate students majoring in Applied Behavior Analysis in South Korea. A total of 48 students participated, and 36 responses were used for final analysis after excluding 12 incomplete responses. All participants were enrolled in coursework required for BCBA certification and were working in the field as special education teachers, behavior analysts, speech-language pathologists, or related service providers. Therefore, they were considered appropriate for the study sample.

To examine participants’ compassion levels, the Korean version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) was employed. The original JSE was developed by Hojat et al. (2001) for medical professionals, and later translated into Korean by Kang (2007), who reported strong reliability (Cronbach’s α = .88) and validity. For the present study, terminology such as “physician,” “medical treatment,” “patient,” and “disease” was modified to “behavior therapist,” “behavioral intervention,” “client,” and “problem behavior,” respectively, to ensure suitability for ABA contexts. The adapted items underwent expert review by a BCBA-D with over 15 years of clinical experience to establish content validity.

The JSE consists of 20 items rated on a 7-point Likert scale and includes three subdomains: Perspective Taking, Compassionate Care, and Standing in the Patient’s Shoes (Kang, 2007). Although originally developed for medical settings, its use has expanded to nursing, psychotherapy, ABA, and various rehabilitation fields.

Participants’ educational experiences and perceptions were assessed using a modified version of the questionnaire developed by LeBlanc, Taylor, and Marchese (2020). Permission was obtained from the original authors, and a translation–back-translation procedure was conducted. Content validity was ensured through review by BCBA-D and BCBA professionals.

Data were analyzed using SPSS 28.0. Frequency analyses were performed to identify participants’ general characteristics, educational experiences, and perceptions. Reliability analyses (Cronbach’s α) assessed internal consistency of the compassion measure. Independent-samples t-tests and one-way ANOVA were used to examine differences in compassion levels based on educational experiences.

Ⅲ. Results

1. Participant Characteristics

Frequency analysis results are shown in Table 1. Regarding BCBA experience, 31 participants (86.1%) had less than one year of experience, 2 participants (5.6%) had 1–3 years, and 3 (8.3%) had 3–6 years. Primary work settings included centers/clinics (28 participants, 77.8%), homes and public schools (3 participants each, 8.3%), and private schools and hospitals (1 participant each, 2.8%). In terms of job roles, 32 participants (88.9%) were direct practitioners, while 2 (5.6%) each served as supervisors or instructors.

2. Educational Experiences Related to Therapeutic Relationship and Compassion

Among respondents, 91.7% reported lecture-based training; 97.2% had experience with assigned readings; 88.9% had lecture-based and mentoring-based training during BCBA supervised fieldwork; 83.3% attended external professional development (e.g., workshops or conferences); 91.7% engaged in voluntary professional development activities; and 44.4% had voluntary mentoring or supervision experience.

3. Perceptions

Most respondents perceived therapeutic relationship-building skills with caregivers as very important (50.0%) or important (33.3%). Further, 88.9% indicated that formal training in this area is needed within ABA curricula. Additionally, 94.5% expressed willingness to participate in compassion/empathy-related training or mentoring, and 97.2% believed such training would contribute to professional competence.

4. Compassion Levels

Descriptive statistics for compassion scores on the JSE indicated a mean score of 116.81 (SD = 10.01), reflecting an overall high level of empathy. Scores ranged from 98 to 132. Both skewness (–0.07) and kurtosis (–1.11) fell within acceptable ranges (absolute values below 2 and 4, respectively), supporting the assumption of normality.

5. Educational Experiences and Compassion

Two factors showed significant effects on compassion.First, participants with external professional training (e.g., workshops, conferences) had significantly higher compassion scores (M = 118.50, SD = 9.72) than those without (M = 108.33, SD = 7.06; t = 2.425, p < .05).Second, participants with voluntary mentoring or supervision experience scored significantly higher (M = 121.06, SD = 10.24) than those without such experience (M = 113.40, SD = 8.62; t = 2.439, p < .05).

These findings indicate that voluntary professional development activities—including external workshops and mentoring—are closely associated with increases in compassion among behavior analysts. In contrast, other training experiences (e.g., lectures, employer-provided workshops) did not show significant effects.

Ⅳ. Discussion

This study explored how educational experiences and perceptions influence compassion (empathy) among graduate students majoring in Applied Behavior Analysis. The overall mean compassion score (116.81) was relatively high, suggesting that participants were already familiar with compassionate care concepts or had prior exposure to related content. Nevertheless, experiences such as external workshops and voluntary mentoring showed significant associations with higher compassion levels, whereas formal coursework or employer-based training did not. These results suggest that compassion may be strengthened more effectively through relational experiences and empathic interactions in real practice rather than through didactic instruction alone.

Most respondents perceived caregiver–practitioner relational skills as important and expressed strong interest in receiving compassion-related training or mentoring. These findings are consistent with prior research reporting that compassionate care enhances social validity and treatment adherence (Callahan et al., 2019).

However, limitations include the small sample size (n = 36) and the fact that most participants were affiliated with the same institution, which restricts statistical power and generalizability. Therefore, the results should be interpreted as correlational rather than implying functional relations. Despite these limitations, the study holds value as an early empirical attempt to measure compassionate care among behavior analysts and to demonstrate that voluntary professional development activities may meaningfully contribute to improvements in empathy.

Future research should expand the sample size and incorporate behavioral observations or qualitative methods to more precisely examine causal relations between educational experiences and compassionate behavior.

References

강원섭. (2007). 한국판 의사공감 척도의 신뢰도와 타당도 검사 [석사학위논문, 경희대학교

대학원]

Horner, R. H., & Sugai, G. (2015). School-wide PBIS: An example of applied behavior

analysis implemented at a systems level. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 8(1), 80-83.

LeBlanc, L. A., Taylor, B. A., & Marchese, N. V. (2020). The training experiences of

behavior analysts: Compassionate care and therapeutic relationships with caregivers.

Behavior Analysis in Practice, 13(2), 387-393. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-020-00438-6