The Chinese-Adapted Jefferson Scale of Empathy - Medical Student Version for Assessing the Level of Empathy in Medical Students: A Study of the Reliability and Validity.

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the psychometric properties of the Chinese-Adapted Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Medical Student Version (JSE S-Version) and evaluate its applicability.

Methods: The JSE S-Version was translated into Chinese and subsequently converted into an electronic questionnaire. Then 320 medical students were included in the survey by convenience sampling. The reliability of the scale was assessed by internal consistency reliability, and the validity of the scale was assessed by principal component analysis, exploratory factor analysis and validation factor analysis.

Results: Principal component analysis extracted three principal components. Exploratory factor analysis showed that the structure of the remaining 19 items was consistent with that of the original English version, except for item 18. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the scale demonstrated better convergent validity and discriminant validity after deleting item 18. All items demonstrated both adequate item-total score correlations and favorable discrimination index effect sizes. The internal consistency reliability coefficients of the three dimensions of the Chinese version of the JSE-S scale were all greater than 0.8.

Conclusion: The Chinese-adapted JSE S-Version demonstrated robust psychometric properties consistent with the original English version, with satisfactory reliability and validity analyses, establishing its appropriateness for use in Chinese populations.