How You Say It Matters: Chaplain Linguistic Behavior and Patient Depression

Research Design Associates scientists and colleagues from the Emory University Department of Family and Preventative Medicine are investigating how hospital chaplains’ compassion capacity is associated with their linguistic behavior with hospitalized inpatients, and how their language in turn relates to patient outcomes. Our scientists used exploratory structural equation modeling to identify associations between chaplain-reported compassion capacity, chaplain linguistic behavior, and patient depression after the consultation.

Mascaro, J.S., Palmer, P.K., Wilson, M., Ash, M.J., Florian, M.P., Srivastava, M., Sharma, M., Jarrell, B., Walker, E.R., Cole, S.P., Raison, C.L. (2022). The language of compassion: hospital chaplains’ compassion capacity reduces patient depression via other-oriented, confident language. Mindfulness, 13.