Attachment styles as predictors of self-reported empathy in medical students during pre-clinical years

Objective: To assess medical students' attachment profile and to explore its relationship with empathy dimensions.

Methods: Three cohorts of medical students were consecutively enrolled in the study at the beginning of their second year, before their clinical internship experience, and assessed using the Attachment Style Questionnaire (a self-report measure of attachment styles) and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (a self-report measure of empathy). t-test, partial correlations, and multiple linear regression models were used to analyze relationships between attachment styles and gender, age, and empathy dimensions.

Results: A total of 361 out of 450 (80.2%) Italian second-year medical students participated in the study. Female students considered interpersonal relationships more important and showed a higher need for approval than did their male counterparts. Among the attachment styles, considering relationships as secondary to achievement was the most important significant predictor of both emotional and cognitive empathy variables.

Conclusions: This study shows that the attachment styles of medical students are related to self-evaluated empathy, over and above the effects of gender and age differences.

Practice implications: The Attachment Style Questionnaire may be a useful tool for medical educators to identify medical students with low empathy scores during their pre-clinical years of study.