The reliability and validity of Chinese version of the new empathy questionnaire for children / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To translate the new empathy questionnaire for children and early adoles-cents into Chinese. Then to test its reliability and validity so as to provide a new and convenient tool for ac-cessing the empathy ability of children and early adolescents. Methods The Chinese version of the new em-pathy questionnaire was developed based on the translation and back translation. And its revision was adapted according to Chinese culture. By multistage stratified and cluster random sampling method,a questionnaire survey was conducted among 840 pupils in two primary schools in Dalian and Tieling of Liaoning province. SPSS 20. 0 and AMOS 22. 0 software were used to analyze the data. Results The item content validity inde-xes (I-CVI) were 0. 830-1. 000,S-CVI/UA was 0. 875 and SCVI/Ave was 0. 979. The exploratory factor a-nalysis (EFA) indicated five factors those explained 66. 922% of the total variance. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that five-factor model fit well(χ2/df=1. 438,RMR=0. 028,RMSEA=0. 033,GFI=0. 964,AGFI=0. 946,TLI=0. 968,IFI=0. 976,CFI=0. 976,PGFI=0. 643 ). The Cronbach's α coefficient was 0. 813 and the re-test reliability was 0. 820. Conclusion The new empathy questionnaire is a reliable, valid,simple and feasible instrument to evaluate the empathetic ability of Chinese children and early adoles-cents.