Cross-cultural adaptation and clinical application of the Perth Empathy Scale

Qingying Ye; Yang Liu; Siyu Zhang; Ke Ni; Sufen Fu; Wenjie Dou; Wei Wei; Bao-Ming Li; David A Preece; Xin-Lu Cai

doi:10.1002/jclp.23643

Cross-cultural adaptation and clinical application of the Perth Empathy Scale

J Clin Psychol. 2024 Jan 18. doi: 10.1002/jclp.23643. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Qingying Ye¹, Yang Liu¹, Siyu Zhang², Ke Ni³, Sufen Fu², Wenjie Dou¹, Wei Wei^{4

5

6}, Bao-Ming Li^{1

7}, David A Preece^{8

9}, Xin-Lu Cai^{1

7

10

11}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Brain Science and Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China.
² Department of Psychology, Jing Hengyi School of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China.
³ Qiqihar Mental Health Center, Qiqihar, China.
⁴ Department of Neurobiology, Affiliated Mental Health Center & Hangzhou Seventh People's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
⁵ Liangzhu Laboratory, MOE Frontier Science Center for Brain Science and Brain-machine Integration, State Key Laboratory of Brain-machine Intelligence, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
⁶ NHC and CAMS Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
⁷ Zhejiang Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory for Research in Early Development and Childcare, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China.
⁸ School of Population Health and Curtin enAble Institute, Curtin University, Perth, Australia.
⁹ School of Psychological Science, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.
¹⁰ Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments, Hangzhou, China.
¹¹ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.

PMID: 38236207
DOI: 10.1002/jclp.23643

Abstract

Objective: Alterations of empathy have been observed in patients with various mental disorders. The Perth Empathy Scale (PES) was recently developed to measure a multidimensional construct of empathy across positive and negative emotions. However, its psychometric properties and clinical applications have not been examined in the Chinese context.

Methods: The Chinese version of the PES was developed and administered to a large Chinese sample (n = 1090). Factor structure, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent, discriminant, as well as concurrent validity were examined. Moreover, 50 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 50 healthy controls were recruited to explore the clinical utility of the PES.

Results: Confirmatory factor analyses supported a theoretically congruent three-factor structure of empathy, namely Cognitive Empathy, Negative Affective Empathy and Positive Affective Empathy. The PES showed good to excellent internal consistency reliability, good convergent and discriminant validity, acceptable concurrent validity, and moderate to high test-retest reliability. Patients with MDD had significantly lower PES scores compared to healthy controls. Linear discriminant function comprised of the three factors correctly differentiated 71% of participants, which further verified the clinical utility of the PES.

Conclusions: Our findings indicated that the Chinese version of the PES is a reliable and valid instrument to measure cognitive and affective empathy across negative and positive emotions, and could therefore be used in both research and clinical practice.

Keywords: Perth Empathy Scale; depression; empathy; factor structure; psychometric.

Abstract

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