Assess the psychometric properties of empathy and sympathy questionnaire in students

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of empathy and sympathy questionnaire in students. For this purpose, 350 students (130 boys and 220 girls) from high school in Pars Abad were selected by simple random sampling and they responded to the empathy and sympathy questionnaire. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and LISREL 8.8 software. The results showed that Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the cognitive empathy, emotional empathy, sympathy components were 0.84, 0.81 and 0.78, respectively. Also, Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the whole questionnaire was obtained by 0.82. Test-retest reliability in interval of two weeks was obtained in range of 0.71 to 0.78. The results of first order and second order confirmatory factor analysis showed that the model has a good fit (RMSEA= 0.056). According to the results, it can be said that empathy and sympathy questionnaire is a useful tool to measure empathy and sympathy in students.