The Basic Empathy Scale: A Chinese Validation of a Measure of Empathy in Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Basic Empathy Scale (BES). The Chinese version of BES was administered to a sample (n = 1,524) aged 9-18 and 65 males with conduct disorder aged 13-18. The result of confirmatory factor analysis showed a two-factor structure with four items deleted to be the most adequate model (cognitive empathy, affective empathy). Empathy was positively correlated with a measure of prosocial behaviour and a measure of emotional problems. Boys with conduct disorder scored significantly lower than matched participants on cognitive empathy. Moreover, in line with previous researches, girls were found to score significantly higher on empathy than boys and the scores on both cognitive and affective empathy increased with age. The Chinese revision exhibited satisfactory internal consistency and moderate test-retest reliability.