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With the emergence of novel, targeted early interventions to treat this psychopathology, the critical limitations of existing parent-report empathy measures reveal their unsuitability for assessing empathy levels and outcomes in young children. The present study aimed to develop a reliable and comprehensive parent-rated empathy scale for young children. This was accomplished by first generating a large list of empathy items sourced from both preexisting empathy measures and from statements made by parents during a clinical interview about their young child\u2019s empathy. Second, this item set was refined using exploratory factor analysis of item scores from parents of children aged 2 to 8 years (56.6% male), recruited online using Amazon\u2019s Mechanical Turk. A five-factor solution provided the best fit to the data: Attention to Others\u2019 Emotions, Personal Distress (i.e., Emotional Contagion\/Affective Empathy), Personal Distress\u2013Fictional Characters, Prosocial Behavior, and Sympathy. Total and subscale scores on the new \u201cMeasure of Empathy in Early Childhood\u201d (MEEC) were internally consistent. Finally, this five-factor structure was tested using confirmatory factor analysis and model fit was adequate. With further research into the validity of MEEC scores, this new rater-based empathy measure for young children may hold promise for assessing empathy in early childhood and advancing research into the origins of empathy and empathy-related disorders.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/10731911211038629","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,28]],"date-time":"2021-08-28T06:34:09Z","timestamp":1630132449000},"page":"37-50","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["Development of an Empathy Rating Scale for Young Children"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"30","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4325-6108","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eva R.","family":"Kimonis","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Parent-Child Research Clinic, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9673-8805","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Natasha","family":"Jain","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Parent-Child Research Clinic, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bryan","family":"Neo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Parent-Child Research Clinic, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Georgette E.","family":"Fleming","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Parent-Child Research Clinic, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nancy","family":"Briggs","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-10731911211038629","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1176\/appi.books.9780890425596"},{"key":"bibr2-10731911211038629","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2466\/pms.1987.64.2.359"},{"key":"bibr3-10731911211038629","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/10705511.2014.859510"},{"key":"bibr4-10731911211038629","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1023\/B:JADD.0000022607.19833.00"},{"issue":"2","key":"bibr5-10731911211038629","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"296","DOI":"10.1111\/j.2517-6161.1954.tb00174.x","volume":"16","author":"Bartlett M. 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