title: The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire: scale development and initial validation of a factor-analytic solution to multiple empathy measures.
abstract: To formulate a parsimonious tool to assess empathy, we used factor analysis on a combination of self-report measures to examine consensus and developed a brief self-report measure of this common factor. The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) represents empathy as a primarily emotional process. In 3 studies, the TEQ demonstrated strong convergent validity, correlating positively with behavioral measures of social decoding, self-report measures of empathy, and negatively with a measure of Autism symptomatology. Moreover, it exhibited good internal consistency and high test-retest reliability. The TEQ is a brief, reliable, and valid instrument for the assessment of empathy.
authors.affiliation: Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. nathan.spreng@gmail.com
authors.forename: R Nathan
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Spreng
authors.forename: Margaret C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: McKinnon
authors.forename: Raymond A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Mar
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Levine
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001321:Autistic Disorder; D004645:Empathy; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D055815:Young Adult