Department of Psychology, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, China.
Institute of Child Development, Jinhua Polytechnic, Jinhua, China.
PLoS One. 2023 Jan 26;18(1):e0275903. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0275903. eCollection 2023.
Empathy involves both empathic ability and empathic motivation. An important topic has been how to measure empathic ability and motivation simultaneously in both clinical and non-clinical samples and across different cultures. The Empathy Components Questionnaire (ECQ) is a self-report questionnaire that measures empathic ability and motivation in a questionnaire. The current study aimed to validate the Mandarin Chinese version of the ECQ (ECQ-Chinese) in three Chinese samples. In study 1, a total of 538 Chinese participants (Sample 1) completed the ECQ-Chinese via an online survey, and existing measures of empathy and related constructs which were used for criterion validity. In study 2, a total of 104 participants (Sample 2) were recruited again from sample 1 and completed the ECQ-Chinese three weeks later to investigate test-retest reliability. In study 3, a further 324 participants (Sample 3) completed the ECQ-Chinese for confirmatory factor analysis. The results showed that the ECQ-Chinese has a good internal consistency reliability, split-half reliability, and criterion validity (Study 1), and a good test-retest reliability (Study 2). Further, Study 3 found that a 22-item ECQ-Chinese consisting of five subscales had a good construct validity, convergence validity and discriminate validity, demonstrating it to be a suitable tool for the measurement of empathic ability and motivation in Chinese samples and to carry out cross-cultural studies of empathy and its components.
共情能力包括共情能力和共情动机。一个重要的话题是如何在临床和非临床样本以及不同文化中同时衡量共情能力和动机。共情成分问卷（ECQ）是一种自我报告问卷，用于在问卷中衡量共情能力和动机。本研究旨在通过三个中国样本验证 ECQ 的简体中文版（ECQ-Chinese）。在研究 1 中，共有 538 名中国参与者（样本 1）通过在线调查完成了 ECQ-Chinese，并使用现有的共情和相关结构的测量方法进行了效标效度。在研究 2 中，又从样本 1 中招募了 104 名参与者（样本 2），并在三周后完成了 ECQ-Chinese，以调查重测信度。在研究 3 中，另有 324 名参与者（样本 3）完成了 ECQ-Chinese 以进行验证性因素分析。结果表明，ECQ-Chinese 具有良好的内部一致性信度、半分信度和效标效度（研究 1），以及良好的重测信度（研究 2）。此外，研究 3 发现，由五个分量表组成的 22 项 ECQ-Chinese 具有良好的结构效度、收敛效度和区分效度，表明它是一种适合测量中国样本共情能力和动机的工具，并可进行共情及其成分的跨文化研究。
