The Relationship between Empathy and Altruism with Resilience among Soldiers

Due to its special conditions, military service is always full of stress and stressful conditions that affect the mental health of soldiers, but the resilience of individuals can make them more capable of adapting to these conditions. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between empathy and kindness with the resilience of soldiers in a military organ.

The method of this study was descriptive-correlational, and the statistical population consisted of all the soldiers in one of the military training units of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2019 including 400 people. The sample size consisted of 100 subjects selected by the simple random sampling method. The data were collected using the Mehrabian and Epstein Empathy Questionnaire (1972), the Rashton et al.'s (1981) Global Desirable Social Behavior Scale (self-report altruism) and the Connor and Davidson's Resilience Scale. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS software using central and dispersion indices and Pearson correlation and regression tests.

The results indicated that there is a positive, significant relationship between empathy and altruism with resilience (p < 0/001). The stepwise regression analysis further revealed that empathy and altruism predict resilience.

Holding empathy and altruism workshops to promote resilience can prevent soldiers' depression and psychological problems.