title: Brief report: The accuracy of parents for the thoughts and feelings of their adolescent suffering from chronic fatigue: a preliminary study of empathy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study examined the actual and estimated empathic accuracy (EA) of the parents of adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).
  
  
  METHODS
  The actual EA of both parents (n = 24) was assessed in relation to the thoughts and feelings of their child (n = 14) about CFS and about other life events. Adolescents were also asked to estimate the parents' EA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For the actual EA, both parents were significantly less accurate regarding the adolescent's thoughts and feelings about CFS than about other life events. Fathers were just as empathically accurate as mothers. For the estimated EA, however, results indicated that adolescents perceived their mother to be more empathically accurate than their father. Actual EA and estimated EA about CFS were negatively correlated for fathers, not for mothers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results are discussed in terms of the importance of assessing EA in relation to other dimensions of empathic understanding and distress in the observer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. Tine.Vervoort@Ugent.be
authors.forename: Tine
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vervoort
authors.forename: Geert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Crombez
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Buysse
authors.forename: Liesbet
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Goubert
authors.forename: Tine De
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Backer
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ickes
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001294:Attitude to Health; D004645:Empathy; D005192:Family Health; D015673:Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013850:Thinking