Adaptation and validation of an instrument to assess empathy in children and adolescents: the TECA-NA

In this study, we describe the process of development and validation of an instrument (TECA-NA) to assess empathy in children and adolescents. The TECA-NA is a 30- item questionnaire which was developed based on the Cognitive and Affective Empathy Test (TECA). The TECA-NA questionnaire has the same four-factor structure than the TECA: perspective taking, emotional understanding, personal distress and empathic joy, which account for 38.88 % of the total variance. The TECA-NA questionnaire and other measures were applied to 670 participants, with ages ranging from 10 to 16 years old (M= 13.01; SD= 1.99). The results showed that the TECA-NA has adequate internal consistency, and appropriate convergent and discriminant validity. In addition, the results found in the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses replicated the structure of the questionnaire the TECA-NA is based on, considering the goodness-of-it indexes. This new measure expands the array of available questionnaires to assess empathy in children and adolescents, considering both the cognitive and affective components of empathy.