Estructura Interna y Validez del Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test Versión Niños en una Muestra Colombiana de Estudiantes de Secundaria

Introduction and objectives

Social cognition is a broad set of processes related to interpersonal interaction, social adjustment, and a whole array of complex social behaviours. Disturbances in these processes are a key feature of many psychiatric disorders, therefore the adaptation and validation of assessment tools to measure social cognition performance are critical for correct diagnosis and treatment. One popular assessment tool is the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), which is used to measure individual ability regarding social cognition skills. Despite its remarkable popularity, to date there is no record about its psychometric features in Spanish-speaking children. Therefore, the aim of this research was to assess the internal consistency, convergent validity, and factorial structure of the RMET in children.

Methods

Our sample consisted of school students (n = 509; 315 males, and 194 females) from sixth to ninth grade with ages ranging from 10 to 16 years old.

Results

The RMET has acceptable internal consistency, moderate convergent validity, and acceptable adjustment to a unidimensional factorial structure that could be improved by using a shortened version. No significant differences between sex and age groups were found, average performance scores of each test seem to be similar to those from akin cultural backgrounds (Spain or Argentina).

Conclusions

The RMET has acceptable reliability and validity and is therefore a suitable test for differentiating theory of mind skills in typically developing populations. Its psychometric properties should be investigated in clinical samples and other age groups.