Abstract

KIRST-CONCEICAO, Andréa da Cunha  and  MARTINELLI, Selma de Cássia. Initial psychometric analysis of an child and youth empathy scale (EEmpa-IJ). Aval. psicol. [online]. 2014, vol.13, n.3, pp. 351-358. ISSN 1677-0471.

The aim of this study was to describe the development and initial validation of an empathy scale for Brazilian students. The instrument was constructed based upon literature analysis on the subject of empathy and four scales found in international and national literature. The sample comprised of 201 students, of both genders, aged 9 to 16, from the 5th to the 9th grade. The proposed scale contemplates 17 items, with 4-point Likert-type responses (never, seldom, often and always), distributed in three factors with explained variance of 44.57%. Cronbach’s alpha for the factor denominated Empathic Concern was 0.75, Emotional Responsiveness was 0.71, and Interpersonal Flexibility was 0.63. The instrument requires further study given that one of the factors (Interpersonal Flexibility) did not show acceptable indices of internal consistency.

Keywords : empathy; validation; measurements; students.

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