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). 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). Some people get affected by emotionally charged situations, which might for example result in showing helping behavior, whereas others are not seized with emotion at all ( Jolliffe and Farrington, 2006).

Taken together, we show that the EmQue-CA is a reliable and valid instrument to measure empathy in typically developing children and adolescents aged 10 and older.Įmpathy, the ability to share and understand emotional states of others ( Batson et al., 1987), has a large impact on how people act in social situations. With regard to concurrent validity, higher empathy was related to more attention to others’ emotions, higher friendship quality, less focus on own affective state, and lower levels of bullying behavior. Furthermore, the scales showed high convergent validity, as they were positively correlated with related scales of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index ( Davis, 1983). Reliability analyses demonstrated high internal consistency of the scales. A Principal Components Analysis, which was directly tested with a Confirmatory Factor Analysis, confirmed the proposed three-factor model resulting in 14 final items. The EmQue-CA aims to assess empathy using the following scales: affective empathy, cognitive empathy, and intention to comfort. In this study, 1250 children and adolescents (10–15 year olds) completed the newly developed Empathy Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (EmQue-CA) that was tested on reliability, construct validity, convergent validity, and concurrent validity. Empathy plays a crucial role in healthy social functioning and in maintaining positive social relationships.

Iri empathy test