Psychometric properties of the brief empathy test for mexican children

Abstract

One of the most crucial skills for the development of children and adolescents is empathy. The ability to “feel or experience” other people’s emotions is called empathy. As a skill that promotes adherence and adaptability to the family and social group and favors the proper functioning of the individual, empathy is also seen as a positive method of communication: The process of creating this instrument began with a review of the literature. From a first draft of 88 items, an item bank was created and judges (psychologists with expertise in psychometrics, child psychology, and the theme of empathy) were asked to rate the results. Similarly, these first items were presented to a focus group of children to see if they understood the sentences given their ages. Subsequently, questions that were not clear in their wording, that the children did not understand, or that did not receive the approval of the judges were removed. A short version with 29 items was then added and used for psychometric analysis. Results: The Brief Empathy Test for Children is aself-administered questionnaire, with 29 items with answers on a Likert-typescalethat includes never,sometimes and always. Applicable to children from 8 to 13 years old. It has four subscales: 1) Compassionate Anguish (CA) with 11 items, 2) Empathic Fantasy (FE) with 4 items, 3) Perspective Taking (PT) with 6 items, and 4) Empathic Understanding (UE) with 8 items. Discussion: A high level of empathy in children will have a positive impact on development and can be observed in their interpersonal relationships and conflict resolution.