Relación entre las funciones ejecutivas y la empatía y su influencia en el rendimiento académico en alumnado de Formación Profesional Básica

Introduction. One of the lines of research that has aroused great interest in recent years has been to determine the role played by certain cognitive abilities in academic performance. This article describes the relationship between executive functions (interference, flexibility and planning) and empathy and their influence on the academic performance of a group of students enrolled in an institute of Basic Vocational Training (BVT).Method. The sample was composed of 80 students between the ages of 15 and 19 years. The instruments used were: STROOP (interference), Trail Making Test (TMT) (flexibility), Tower of Hanoi (planning) and TCAE (Test of Cognitive and Affective Empathy). The academic performance variable was assessed using qualifications obtained in the Social/Language and Science/Technology areas (grades from the different subjects). Pearson correlations and multiple regressions were applied.Results. The results show no significant relation between executive functions and empathy. The level of executive functions explained 15% of the variability in academic performance, while empathy had no significant influence.Discussion and conclusions. This study demonstrates the importance of examining development of executive functions in adolescent BVT students, and determining their influence on academic performance.