Adaptation of the Basic Empathy Scale among a Portuguese sample of incarcerated juvenile offenders

Abstract

The main aim of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Basic Empathy Scale (BES) and of its adapted short version among a forensic sample of incarcerated male juvenile offenders (N = 221). The Portuguese validations of the BES and its adapted short version demonstrated good psychometric properties, namely in terms of the two-factor structure, internal consistency, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and concurrent validity that generally justifies its use among this population.Statistically significant associations were found with callous-unemotional traits and social anxiety. Findings are discussed in terms of the use of the BES and its adapted short version with juvenile offenders.

Measuring Empathy in a German Youth Prison: A Validation of the German Version of the Basic Empathy Scale (BES) in a Sample of Incarcerated Juvenile Offenders

“…This is in line with results from the Spanish and Portuguese validation studies (Pechorro et al, 2015;Salas-Wright et al, 2012). In the Dutch validation study, the negatively phrased items also proved to have relatively low factor loadings, but were not removed (Van Langen et al, 2015).…”

“…Furthermore, concurrent validity was demonstrated in a significant and negative correlation between cognitive empathy and callous-unemotional traits, which is in line with the meta-analysis by Stams et al (2006), who demonstrated that juvenile delinquents with psychopathic traits showed a lack of moral cognition. In line with previous research (Dadds et al, 2009;Munoz, Qualter, & Padget, 2011;Pechorro et al, 2015) a significant correlation between affective empathy and CU traits was also expected, but could not be confirmed in the present study, possibly because juvenile delinquents tend to hide their emotions for fear of being considered as weak by their peers (Van der Helm et al, 2012). We found partial evidence for concurrent validity of the German version of the BES, that is, only for cognitive empathy.…”

“…To date, most validation studies of the BES have been conducted in more homogeneous samples of nondelinquent youth. Salas-Wright et al (2013) and Pechorro et al (2015) examined validity of the BES in samples of Spanish and Portuguese juvenile delinquents. Interestingly, the items of the Spanish and Portuguese 7-item adapted version of the BES were preserved in the German version.…”

Propriedades psicométricas da Escala de Respostas Socialmente Desejáveis - 5 (SDRS-5) em jovens institucionalizados

“…Pontuações mais elevadas indicam níveis de empatia mais elevados. Na presente investigação foi utilizada a versão portuguesa da BES (Pechorro, Ray, Salas-Wright, Marôco, & Gonçalves, 2015). A consistência interna, estimada por alfa de Cronbach, da BES para a presente investigação foi de .91.…”

Invarianza Factorial Según Sexo de la Basic Empathy Scale Abreviada en Adolescentes Peruanos

“…La BES supera las limitaciones metodológicas de otros instrumentos que evalúan parcialmente la empatía, como son la Escala de Empatía de Hogan (1969), que evalúa el componente cognitivo, o el Questionnaire Measure of Emotional Empathy (Mehrabian & Epstein, 1972), que mide solamente la empatía emocional. Esta cualidad de la escala ha motivado diversos estudios acerca de su estructura factorial en diferentes países e idiomas, como China (Geng, Xia & Qin, 2012), Italia (Albiero et al, 2009), Portugal (Pechorro, Ray, Salas-Wright, Maroco & Gonçalves, 2015), Eslovaquia (Čavojová, Sirota & Belovičová, 2012), Francia (Bensalah, Stefaniak, Carre & Besche-Richard, 2016;D'Ambrosio, Olivier, Didon & Besche, 2009), Perú (Merino-Soto & Grimaldo-Muchotrigo, 2015) y España (Oliva Delgado et al, 2011), que han confirmado la estructura bidimensional de la escala.…”