Does empathy mediate the relationship between neuroticism and depressive symptomatology among college students?

Traditionally, researchers have focused on the positive outcomes associated with empathy-related traits. However, in the present study, empathy-related traits were examined as possible mediators in the relationship between neuroticism and depressive symptoms among a sample of 204 college students. As expected, fantasy acted as a partial mediator in the neuroticism–depression connection. Although personal distress was not a mediator, it did interact with neuroticism to influence depression scores. Overall, these findings point to the importance of considering empathy not only in terms of positive, but negative outcomes as well.