Abstract
BackgroundEmpathy is a key aspect of the physician-patient interactions. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) is one of the most used empathy measures of medical students. The development of cross-cultural empathy studies depends on valid and reliable translations of the JSE. This study sought to: (1) adapt and assess the psychometric properties in Spanish students of the Spanish JSE validated in Mexican students; (2) test a second order latent factor model.MethodsThe Spanish JSE was adapted from the Spanish JSE-S, resulting in a final version of the measure. A non-probabilistic sample of 1104 medical students of two Spanish medical schools completed a socio-demographic and the Spanish JSE-S. Descriptive statistics, along with a confirmatory factor analysis, the average variance extracted (AVE), Cronbach’s alphas and composite reliability (CR) coefficients were computed. An independent samples t-test was performed to access sex differences.ResultsThe Spanish JSE-S demonstrated acceptable to good sensitivity (individual items – except for item 2 – and JSE-S total score: −2.72 < Sk < 0.35 and −0.77 < Ku < 7.85), convergent validity (AVE: between 0.28 and 0.45) and reliability (Cronbach’s alphas: between 0.62 and 0.78; CR: between 0.62 and 0.87). The confirmatory factor analysis supported the three-factor solution and the second order latent factor model.ConclusionsThe findings provide support for the sensitivity, construct validity and reliability of the adapted Spanish JSE-S with Spanish medical students. Data confirm the hypothesized second order latent factor model. This version may be useful in future research examining empathy in Spanish medical students, as well as in cross-cultural studies.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12909-016-0763-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Empathy is a key aspect of the physician-patient interactions
The elucidation of cross-cultural differences and similarities related with empathy development during medical training and with the way students and clinicians conceive and manifest empathy would benefit from conceptual clarification of the construct and the application of valid and reliable empathy measures across countries
The results suggest that the sensitivity, construct validity and reliability of the Spanish Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE)-S were acceptable
Summary
Empathy is a key aspect of the physician-patient interactions. The development of cross-cultural empathy studies depends on valid and reliable translations of the JSE. Ever since Fine and Therrien [4] studied empathy in the context of physician-patient interactions, clinicians and researchers became increasingly interested in empathy in the context of patient care. The inexistence of a consensual definition translates into the co-existence of more than 40 empathy measures [13], that reflect conceptions of the construct as predominantly cognitive [2, 14–16], affective [17, 18] or both [19, 20]. The elucidation of cross-cultural differences and similarities related with empathy development during medical training and with the way students and clinicians conceive and manifest empathy would benefit from conceptual clarification of the construct and the application of valid and reliable empathy measures across countries
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