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Empathy and Autism: Establishing the Structure and Different Manifestations of Empathy in Autistic Individuals Using the Perth Empathy Scale.
Brett, Jack D; Preece, David A; Becerra, Rodrigo; Whitehouse, Andrew; Maybery, Murray T.
Afiliação
  • Brett JD; The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia. jack.brett@research.uwa.edu.au.
  • Preece DA; The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.
  • Becerra R; School of Psychology, Curtin University, Perth, Australia.
  • Whitehouse A; The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.
  • Maybery MT; Telethon Kids Institute, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.
J Autism Dev Disord ; 2024 Aug 08.
Article em En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-39115741
ABSTRACT

PURPOSE:

There is a common mischaracterisation that autistic individuals have reduced or absent empathy. Measurement issues may have influenced existing findings on the relationships between autism and empathy, and the structure of the empathy construct in autism remains unclear.

METHODS:

The present study sought to address these gaps by examining the structure and psychometric properties of the Perth Empathy Scale (PES) in autistic individuals (N = 239) compared to non-autistic individuals (N = 690).

RESULTS:

Our moderated non-linear factor analysis revealed that the multidimensional empathy construct manifested similarly in autistic and non-autistic individuals, with the PES displaying good validity and reliability. Moreover, the results revealed that autistic individuals reported reduced cognitive empathy and reduced affective empathy for positive and negative emotions. However, there was greater heterogeneity of empathic tendencies in the autistic sample, indicating that these mean differences may not be generalisable for all autistic individuals.

CONCLUSION:

The present study highlights that the PES is suitable for assessing empathy across autistic and non-autistic individuals. This work with the PES also provides greater nuance to our understanding of empathy and autism, and based on these findings, we propose the empathy heterogeneity hypothesis of autism as a new way of describing empathy in autism.
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Texto completo: 1 Base de dados: MEDLINE Idioma: En Ano de publicação: 2024 Tipo de documento: Article

Texto completo: 1 Base de dados: MEDLINE Idioma: En Ano de publicação: 2024 Tipo de documento: Article