Slovak validation of the Basic Empathy Scale in pre-adolescents.

The aim of the two studies presented here was to validate the Slovak version of the Basic Empathy Scale (DES, Jolliffe, Farrington, 2006), which reflected on conceptual changes of empathy by measuring both its affective and cognitive components. The first study (n = 429) confirmed the two correlated factor model of the Slovak adaptation of BES as consisting of affective and cognitive component of empathy on a sample of pre-adolescents. The second study (n = 318) provided evidence to support both the convergent and discriminant validity of the BES using two other measures of empathy and two mindreading measures. Taken together, our results are consistent with previous validation studies of the BES and provide additional evidence supporting the two factor model of empathy. Our findings also show that the Slovak validation of BES has satisfactory psychometric qualities and thus endorse use of the BES in research and practice.