[en] In this study, we investigated a new instrument: the Southampton Test of Empathy for Preschoolers (STEP). The test incorporated 8 video vignettes of children in emotional scenarios, assessing a child's ability to understand (STEP-UND) and share (STEP-SHA) in the emotional experience of a story protagonist. Each vignette included 4 emotions (angry, happy, fearful, sad) that reflected emotion judgments based on the protagonist's facial expression, situation, verbal cues, and desire. The STEP was administered to 39 preschool children, and internal reliability, concurrent validity, and construct validity were addressed. The results showed good internal consistency. They also highlighted moderate concurrent validity with parent-rated empathy, a measure of facial indices, and construct validity with teacher-rated prosocial behavior.
Disciplines :
Treatment & clinical psychology
Identifiers :
UNILU:UL-ARTICLE-2011-202
Author, co-author :
Howe, A.; University of Southampton, UK
Pit-Ten Cate, Ineke ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education (FLSHASE) > Languages, Culture, Media and Identities (LCMI)
Brown, A.; University of Southmapton, UK
Hadwin, J. A.
Language :
English
Title :
Empathy in Preschool Children: The development of the Southampton Test of Empathy for Preschoolers (STEP)
Publication date :
2008
Journal title :
Psychological Assessment
ISSN :
1040-3590
eISSN :
1939-134X
Publisher :
American Psychological Association, Arlington, United States - Virginia
