Location
Jolliffe, D., & Farrington D.P. (2006a). Development and validation of the Basic Empathy Scale. Journal of
Adolescence, 29 , 589/C0611.
Results and Comments
The BES has been used in research into bullying (e.g., Jolliffe & Farrington, 2006b; Stavrinides et al., 2010 ) and
offending ( Jolliffe & Farrington, 2007 ). There is a paucity of literature that provides stability coefficients for the
BES over a time interval greater than seven weeks. Despite collection of the BES on two occasions over a 6-month
period, Stavrinides et al. (2010) did not report test /C0retest reliability.
BES SAMPLE ITEMS
Cognitive empathy question
It is hard for me to understand when my friends are sad.
Affective empathy question
I usually feel calm when other people are scared.
Note: Items are rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from: 1 5‘Strongly disagree ’; 25‘Disagree ’; 35‘Neither
agree nor disagree ’; 45‘Agree ’; 55‘Strongly agree ’.
Griffith Empathy Measure (GEM)
(Dadds et al., 2008 )
Variable
The GEM was constructed due to the shortage of multi-informant assessment of empathy in children and ado-
lescents, deemed important for accurate measurement of empathy in this population group ( Dadds et al., 2008 ,
p. 111). It is an adaption of the Bryant Index of Empathy ( Bryant, 1982 ) used by parents to assess child and ado-
lescent empathy ( Dadds et al., 2008 ).
Description
The GEM contains 23 items that are rated on a 9-point Likert-type response scale to assess parents’ level of
agreement with statements concerning their child. The GEM appears to measure cognitive and affective compo-
nents of empathy ( Dadds et al., 2008 ).
Sample
Construction of the GEM used a sample of 2612 parents of children aged 4 to 16 years (mean age 57.71 years;
SD53.06) from primary and secondary schools in Australia.
Reliability
Internal Consistency
Dadds et al. (2008) reported a Cronbach alpha coefficient of .81 for the overall scale of 23 items, .62 for cogni-
tive empathy (6 items), and .83 for affective empathy (9 items). subsequently, Dadds et al. (2009) reported alpha
coefficients of .62 (cognitive empathy), and .77 (affective empathy).
Test/C0Retest
For a subsample of 31 parents with non-clinic children aged 5 /C012 years, Dadds et al. (2008) reported a
test/C0retest reliability coefficient over a one-week interval of .91 for the GEM (affective subscale: r5.93; cognitive
subscale: r5.89). In a further sub sample of 127 parents with non-clinic children, Dadds et al. (p. 117) reported
an impressive six-month stability coefficient ( r5.69).267 OVERVIEW OF THE MEASURES
III. EMOTION REGULATION