PURPOSE: The purpose of this research was to identify the relationship of empathy, communication style, and coping type with students exhibiting a attention deficit disorder hyperactivity (ADHD). METHODS: Participants were 238 elementary school teachers living in 5 cities in Korea. The teacher's answered questions about their empathy level, communication style and coping type when teaching students with ADHD. Data were analyzed using t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficients with SPSS 21.0. RESULTS: Teachers' cognitive and emotional empathy were at the same level. For communication styles used by the teachers, reception-encouragement was the most widely used and nonreception-commanding style was the least widely used. With regard to how to deal with student with ADHD, passive coping type was most widely used and active and negative coping followed in that order. Teachers with higher levels of empathy, used more active coping. For communication, the correlation between reception-encouragement and passive coping had the highest level. CONCLUSION: These result suggest the necessity of developing and providing empathy boosting programs about students with ADHD as well as special workshops to increase communication efficacy and coping skills with school-aged ADHD students.
Adaptation, Psychological ; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity* ; Education ; Empathy* ; Humans ; Korea