Development of an Empathy Rating Scale for Young Children

Abstract

Empathy is critical to young children’s socioemotional development and deficient levels characterize a severe and pervasive type of Conduct Disorder (i.e., with limited prosocial emotions). With the emergence of novel, targeted early interventions to treat this psychopathology, the critical limitations of existing parent-report empathy measures reveal their unsuitability for assessing empathy levels and outcomes in young children. The present study aimed to develop a reliable and comprehensive parent-rated empathy scale for young children. This was accomplished by first generating a large list of empathy items sourced from both preexisting empathy measures and from statements made by parents during a clinical interview about their young child’s empathy. Second, this item set was refined using exploratory factor analysis of item scores from parents of children aged 2 to 8 years (56.6% male), recruited online using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. A five-factor solution provided the best fit to the data: Attention to Others’ Emotions, Personal Distress (i.e., Emotional Contagion/Affective Empathy), Personal Distress–Fictional Characters, Prosocial Behavior, and Sympathy. Total and subscale scores on the new “Measure of Empathy in Early Childhood” (MEEC) were internally consistent. Finally, this five-factor structure was tested using confirmatory factor analysis and model fit was adequate. With further research into the validity of MEEC scores, this new rater-based empathy measure for young children may hold promise for assessing empathy in early childhood and advancing research into the origins of empathy and empathy-related disorders.

The measure of empathy in early childhood: Testing the reliability, validity, and clinical utility of scores in early childhood.

“…These findings are consistent with developmental theories, whereby age-related advancements in cognitive empathy skills, such as emotion regulation and self-other distinction allow children to empathically respond to others with less personal distress, and more other-oriented prosocial behavior motivated by sympathy (Batson, 1991; Hoffman, 2000; Williams et al, 2014). However, the lack of association between the other empathy subcomponents and age runs contrary to findings from both the original MEEC validation study (Kimonis et al, 2023) and broader developmental empathy literature (Dadds et al, 2008; Eisenberg et al, 2014; Hoffman, 2000). Again, sample characteristics possibly account for these discrepancies.…”

“…This is likely because of differences in item content between the two subscales, such that all MEEC Attention to Others’ Feelings subscale items capture attention to negatively valenced emotion (e.g., “My child does not notice when someone else is crying” [reverse-scored]), while several of the EmQue Attention to Others’ Feelings subscale items also capture attention to positively valenced emotion (e.g., “My child looks up when another child laughs”). Since the MEEC was developed to identify childhood empathy deficits (Kimonis et al, 2023), it is unsurprising that its Attention to Others’ Feelings subscale only captures attention to negative emotions. That is, deficits in this attention to negative feelings (e.g., fear, sadness) domain are characteristic of children with conduct problems and CU traits (e.g., Ciucci et al, 2017; Kimonis et al, 2016).…”

“…Regarding the GEM, a meta-analysis of 3,500 children demonstrated that the GEM Cognitive Empathy subscale negatively correlated more strongly with CU traits ( r = −.42) than the GEM Affective Empathy subscale ( r = −0.19) (Murphy, 2017, 2019), contradicting research indicating that CU traits are associated with affective empathy deficits but intact cognitive empathy (Schwenck et al, 2012). Several items on the subscale also lack validity evidence related to content, such as “My child reacts badly when they see people kiss and hug in public,” where “bad reactions” may tap into callous behavior rather than low cognitive empathy (Kimonis et al, 2023). Although the EmQue improves upon the GEM by incorporating a Prosocial Actions subscale (Zahn-Waxler et al, 1992), this subscale lacks validity.…”

“…The present study aimed to extend Kimonis et al (2023) by evaluating the psychometric properties of MEEC scores in a novel sample of 2- to 8-year-old children. Regarding reliability, consistent with Kimonis et al (2023), we predicted that MEEC scores would demonstrate good to excellent internal consistency (Aim 1). We also aimed to examine, for the first time, the criterion, construct, discriminant, and clinical validity of MEEC scores in young children (Aim 2).…”

“…Fourth, the MEEC includes a Personal Distress-Fictional Characters subscale, which recognizes that exposure to television and book characters is critical in teaching young children empathic skills (Mares & Woodard, 2005). Finally, MEEC total and subscale scores all demonstrated excellent internal consistency (ordinal αs = .88−.95; Kimonis et al, 2023). However, the validity of MEEC scores is yet to be established beyond age and sex differences, and little is known about the reliability of its scores beyond the initial development study.…”