Relation between executive functions and empathy and their influence on academic performance in students of Basic Vocational Training

Introduction. One of the lines of research that has aroused great interest in recent years has been to determine the role that certain cognitive abilities play in academic performance. This article describes the relationship between executive functions (interference, flexibility and planning), empathy and its influence on the academic performance of a group of students studying a Basic Vocational Education and Training (BVET) College. Method. A total of 80 students between the age of 15 and 19 participated in the study. The instruments used were: STROOP (interference), Trail Making Test (TMT) (flexibility), Tower of Hanoi (planning) and CAET (Cognitive and Affective Empathy Test). The Academic Performance variable was measured from results obtained from the Sociolinguistic and Scientific-Technological fields. Pearson correlations and multiple regressions have been applied. Results. The results show that no significant correlations were found between executive functions and affective empathy, 15% of the variance of academic achievement can be explained by executive functions and that affective empathy has no significant influence on academic performance. Discussion and Conclusion: This study underlines the importance of taking into account the level of executive functions in adolescent BVET students in relation to academic performance.