Measures of empathy in children and adolescents: A systematic review of questionnaires

Table 3 First validation of selected questionnaires (n = 16)

Name	Validation	Subscales	n	Response	Age	R	IC	Reliability	Criterion	Convergent /divergent
BEI	Bryant[98], 1984	None	22	1 (low) to 5 (high)	C, A	SR	α = 0.54 to 0.79	T-R: r = 0.74 to .83	NA	NA
IRI	Litvack-Miller et al[99], 1997	Fantasy;	28	0 (not well) to 4 (very well)	C	SR	NA	NA	NA	NA
		Perspective-taking;
		Empathic concern;
		Personal distress
SME	Rey[63], 2003	None	15	1 (never) to 4 (always)	A	SR	α = 0.78	NA	HC > CD:	NA
									P = 0.008
F&T	Garton et al[89], 2005	Affective;	12	1 (not like me) to 5 (very like me)	C	SR	α = 0.54 to 0.69	NA	F > M	NA
		Cognitive
BES	Jolliffe and Farrington[6], 2006	Affective;	20	1 (agree) to 5 (disagree)	A	SR	α = 0.79 to 0.85	NA	F > M:	IRI: r = 0.43 to 0.53;
		Cognitive							P < 0.0001	TAS: r = –0.20 to –0.17;
										SDS: r = –0.11 to 0.00
GEM	Dadds et al[100], 2007	Cognitive;	23	–4 (disagree) to +4 (agree)	C, A	PR	α = 0.81 (tot);	IRR: r = 0.40 to 0.38;	F > M:	IQ: r = 0.30 (cogn);
		Affective					α = 0.62 to 0.83	T-R: r = 0.69	P < 0.001	CAI-C: r = –0.12 to –0.31;
										CAI-N: r = 0.05 to 0.25;
										IRT: r = 0.30 to 0.56
CEAQ	Funk et al[82], 2008	None	16	No/Maybe/Yes	C	SR	α = 0.77	RPR = 0.75; RPSI = 1.75	F > M:	BEI: r = 0.57;
									P < 0.01	SDQ-PS: r = 0.39;
										SDQ-CP: r = –0.17;
										CSDTC: r = 0.39
DPES	Sallquist et al[62], 2009	None	7	1 (really untrue) to 4 (really true)	P	PR	α = 0.81	NA	NA	ITSEA-E: r = 0.43;
										ITSEA-SC: r = 0.35;
										Task = 0.47
EQ-C	Auyeung et al[64], 2009	None	27	1 (disagree) to 4 (agree)	P, C, A	PR	α = 0.93	T-R: r = 0.86	HC-F > HC-M > ASD;	SQ-C: r = –0.13
									P < 0.001
EQ	Rieffe et al[83], 2010	Emotion contagion;	20	1 (never) to 3 (often)	I, P	PR	α = 0.58 to 0.80	NA	NA	NA
		Attention to others;
		Prosocial actions
ES-PPI	Whitt and Howard[101], 2013	None	5	1 (false) to 4 (true)	A	SR	α = 0.69	NA	NA	BSI-PS: r = 0.11 to 0.30; APSD: r = –0.18 to –0.08; MAYSI-2: r = 0.08 to 0.21
TECA	Lopèz-Pèrez and Fernadèz[102], 2014	Perspective taking;	30	1 (disagree) to 4 (agree)	C, A	SR		NA	NA	NA
		Emotion understanding;
		Personal distress;
		Empathic joy
AMES	Vossen et al[88], 2015	Affective;	12	1 (never) to 5 (always)	C, A	SR	α = 0.75 to 0.86	T-R: r = 0.56 to 0.69	F > M;	IRI-EC: r = 0.29 to 0.63;
		Cognitive;							P < 0.01	IRI-PT: r = 0.21 to 0.45;
		Sympathy								PBS: r = 0.14 to 0.50;
										PA: r = –0.07 to -0.36
EToMS	Wang and Wang[87], 2015	Empathy;	16	1 (never) to 5 (always)	P	PR	α = 0.71 to 0.83	NA	F > M	WL-NiceToM: r = 0.21;
		Nice ToM;								SL-NastyToM: r = 0.33;
		Nasty ToM								FB: r = 0.27 (E) –0.28 (NiceToM)
CASES	Raine and Chen[29], 2017	Affective;	30	0 (rarely) to 2 (often)	C	SR	α = 0.63 to 0.91	NA	F > M	IQ: r > 0;
		Cognitive;								RPAQ-R: r = –0.11;
		Somatic								CBCL-Ext: r < 0;
										APSD: r = –0.12 to –0.39
EQ	Richaud et al[35], 2017	Emotion contagion;	15	1 (never) to 4 (always)	C	SR	ω = 0.70 to 0.76	NA	NA	PBS-C: r = 0.23 to 0.79;
		Self-other awareness;								PBS-L: r = 0.21 to 0.49;
		Perspective taking;								IRI-PT: r = 0.32 to 0.37;
		Emotional regulation;								PVAS: r = –0.18 to –0.31;
		Empathic action								EIS: r = –0.24

Validation refers to the original article in which the questionnaire was first validated. Construct refers to the original article in which the definition of the empathy construct for each questionnaire was provided; n refers to number of items. Response refers to the number of available Likert-scale responses for each item of the questionnaires. Age refers to the age range in which the original validation of the questionnaire was performed (i.e. infants, aged 1–3 years; preschool children aged 3–6 years; children aged 6–13 years; adolescents aged 13–18 years). R refers to type of report, either self- or parent-report. IC refers to internal consistency, measured by either Cronbach’s alpha or McDonald’s omega. Criterion and convergent/divergent refer to criterion and convergent/divergent validity, respectively. α: Cronbach’s alpha; A: adolescents; AMES: Adolescent Measure of Empathy and Sympathy; APSD: Antisocial Personality Screening Device; ASD: autism spectrum disorder; BES: Basic Empathy Scale; BEI: Bryant’s Empathy Index; BSI: Brief Symptom Inventory; C: children; CAI: Cruelty to Animals Inventory; CASES: Cognitive, Affective and Somatic Empathy Scales; CBCL: Child Behaviour Checklist; CD: conduct disorder; CEAQ: Children’s Empathic Attitudes Questionnaire; CSDTC: Crandall Social Desirability Test for Children; DPES: Dispositional Positive Empathy Scale; EIS: Emotional Instability Scale; EmQue: Empathy Questionnaire; EQ: Empathy Questionnaire; EQ-C: Empathy Quotient for Children; ES-PPI: Empathy Scale-Psychopathic Personality Inventory; EToMS: Empathy and Theory of Mind Scale; F: females; FB: false belief; F&T: Feeling and Thinking Scale; GEM: Griffith Empathy Measure; HC: healthy controls; I: infants; IC: internal consistency; IQ: intelligence quotient; IRI: Interpersonal Reactivity Index; IRR: inter-rater reliability; IRT: Interpersonal Response Task; ITSEA: Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment; M: males; MAYSI: Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument; NA: not available; P: preschool children; PA: physical aggression; PBS: Prosocial Behaviour Scale; PR: parent-report; PVAS: Physical and Verbal Aggression Scale; R: report; RPAQ: Reactive–Proactive Aggression Questionnaire; RPR: Rasch Person Reliability; RPSI: Rasch Person Separation Index; SDQ: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire; SDS: Social Desirability Scale; SL: strategic lie; SME: Scale to Measure Empathy; SQ-C: Systemising Quotient for Children; SR: self-report; TAS: Toronto Alexithymia Scale; TECA: Cognitive and Affective Empathy Scale (Test de Empatia Cognitiva y Afectiva); ToM: Theory of mind; T-R: Test-retest; WL: White lie; ω: McDonald’s omega.