A New Multidimensional Questionnaire of Empathy for Early and Middle Adolescents in Spanish

LEMOS, VIVIANA; RICHAUD DE MINZI, MARÍA CRISTINA

International Journal of Psychological Reserach

Facultad de Psicología de la Universidad de San Buenaventura

Lugar: Medellín; Año: 2021

2011-2084

The aim of this study was to develop a Multidimensional Questionnaire of Empathy for Adolescents, since a model of cognitive social neuroscience, operationalizing the dimensions of emotional contagion, self-awareness, perspective-taking, emotional regulation and empathic attitude. For the psychometric study of the instrument, 320 schooled young adolescents participated, from both genders (125 male, 195 female), aged 13 to 16 (M = 14.23; SD = .95). The discriminant power of the items was evaluated, as well as the underlying structure of the instrument, its internal consistency and different evidences of external, convergent, discriminant and group-comparison validity. The results indicated that all the items were discriminant. The adjustment indexes of confirmatory factorial analysis allowed to confirm the pentafactorial structure of the scale, consisting of 15 items. The internal consistency indexes of the different dimensions were between moderate and adequate. Likewise, differences in empathy between men and women were analyzed, the results of which indicated differences in favor of women. The different collected evidences of validity were consistent with what was expected theoretically. In this way it´s possible to conclude that this Multidimensional Empathy Questionnaire for Adolescents (CMEA) is a valid and reliable measure for the evaluation of empathy in adolescents.