Examining the Validity and Reliability of the Persian Version of the Empathy Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of the Persian version of the Empathy Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents. In terms of methodology, this study was a correlational analysis for the purpose of test validation. The statistical population included all 9-to-16-year-old male & female students in Yazd during the academic year of 2017-2018, the sample consisted of 912 students selected through the random sampling process. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) were used to examine the Persian version of the test. The findings showed that the questionnaire included 3 subscales (community empathy, cognitive empathy, and effective empathy). The indices of the confirmatory factor analysis seemed to be a fit model, and the instrument explains the 48.81 percentage of the variance in empathy in children and adolescents. Also, the value of Cronbach's alpha was 0.72. The results of this study confirms the overall validity and reliability of the Persian version of the questionnaire. Therefore, this tool may be used for clinical and research purposes.