Establishing the construct validity and Internal consistency for Urdu version of Jefferson Scale of Empathy-S (JSE-S)

Abstract

Introduction The Jefferson Scale of Empathy in Students or JSE S is a reliable tool to measure the empathy in medical students. I have translated the JSE S into Urdu and measured the empathy in our students along with its reliability and validity. Method This is a cross sectional study of the medical students enrolled at the Muhammad Medical College Mirpurkhas Pakistan. The JSE S was translated into Urdu using the back translation technique. The self administered surveys were distributed to all the 521 medical students of the Muhammad Medical College. The results were analysed using SPSS. Results A total of 405 students returned the forms. The mean empathy score of the medical students was 107 out of 140. Cronbach alpha coefficient was just under 7 for the overall measure. A principal component analysis showed a three factor solution that also provided support for the construct validity of the Urdu version of JSE S version. Conclusion These results have proved that the Urdu version of JSE S version has reasonable reliability and construct validity.