Validating and empathizing

Validating and empathizing - Levert on a sex webcam

Additionally, we expected that adolescents scoring high on cognitive empathy and intention to comfort would be more focused on others’ emotions (Grynberg and Pollatos, 2015). Concerning interpersonal functioning, we expected that adolescents who score high on affective empathy would bully less (Stavrinides et al., 2010) and have better friendship qualities as these adolescents feel for another person in distress, which is a crucial contributor to high friendship quality (Berndt, 2002).

Taken together, we show that the Em Que-CA is a reliable and valid instrument to measure empathy in typically developing children and adolescents aged 10 and older. Previous studies have demonstrated that children with higher levels of empathy are generally better able to regulate their emotions, show less aggression, and act in a more prosocial way (Mehrabian and Epstein, 1972; Eisenberg, 2000; Meuwese et al., 2015). More specifically, higher affective empathy (i.e., sharing an emotional state) predicts constructive conflict resolution when encountering problems with friends (De Wied et al., 2007). Testosterone administration reduces empathetic behavior: a facial mimicry study. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.20 Pub Med Abstract | Cross Ref Full Text | Google Scholar Hill, J. Reliability analyses demonstrated high internal consistency of the scales. Furthermore, the scales showed high convergent validity, as they were positively correlated with related scales of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1983). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Considering the crucial importance of empathic care for the well-being of people one interacts with, attention to comfort should receive more attention (Batson, 2009; Decety et al., 2016).

Therefore, we designed an empathy questionnaire for children and young adolescents (Em Que-CA), suitable for children from the age of 10, that specifically focuses on these three aspects of empathy: (1) affective empathy: a scale that measures the extent to which the child/adolescent feels for the emotional state of the suffering person, (2) cognitive empathy: a scale that measures the extent to which the child/adolescent understands why the other person is in distress, and (3) intention to comfort: a scale that measures the extent to which the child/adolescent is inclined to actually help or support the suffering person. doi: 10.1007/s10803-014-2048-3 Pub Med Abstract | Cross Ref Full Text | Google Scholar Eisenberg, N., Cumberland, A., Guthrie, I.

In a similar vein, affective empathy can hamper rather than strengthen the relationship when the person lacks the ability to support the other person in distress (Pouw et al., 2013).

It is therefore crucial to reliably assess empathy in children and adolescents.

This study presents the development and validation of an empathy self-report questionnaire for children and adolescents, which disentangles three components of empathy: affective empathy, cognitive empathy, and intention to comfort. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00291 Pub Med Abstract | Cross Ref Full Text | Google Scholar Hawk, S.

Up until now, validated questionnaires that have been most commonly used with child and adolescent populations are the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; Davis, 1980) and the Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescents (IECA; Bryant, 1982).

However, the validation of both questionnaires has been done with young adults; yet recently the IRI has also been validated in adolescents (Hawk et al., 2013). Sharing and giving across adolescence: an experimental study examining the development of prosocial behavior.