Empathy in Polish and Spanish children and adolescents

Abstract

The Basic Empathy Scale is widely used to measure cognitive and affective empathy in different contexts. Although empathy is studied throughout the world, the number of studies on this topic conducted in Eastern Europe is still low. Validated instruments to measure empathy are needed in this geographic area. Also, new research about the relation between empathy, bullying, cyberbullying and other antisocial behaviours is needed in more diverse geographic areas. This chapter describes a cross-national study conducted with Spanish and Polish children and adolescents using the Basic Empathy Scale, questionnaires that measured bullying, cyberbullying and other antisocial behaviours. The Polish sample included 1,052 children and adolescents aged 9 to 16. The Spanish sample included 1,483 children and adolescents, aged 9 to 17. Factor analyses were conducted and a short 12-item version, with positive worded items only of the Basic Empathy Scale in both Poland and Spain, was found to have the best fit. Two factors of affective and cognitive empathy were confirmed. Low empathy was related to high involvement in different antisocial behaviours including bullying, cyberbullying, vandalism, stealing, violence, substance use and status offences. The short 12-item version of the Basic Empathy Scale showed excellent psychometric properties. Although longitudinal and experimental projects are needed to confirm causal relations between empathy and antisocial behaviours, this study shows the great potential of targeting empathy in the prevention and reduction of antisocial behaviours in children and adolescents. Therefore, the promotion of empathy in schools would be desirable for addressing these behaviours.