The Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy: A Comparison Between Paper-and-Pencil Versus Online Formats in Italian Samples.

The most recent conceptualizations of empathy recognize affective empathy as distinct from cognitive empathy. Consequently, instruments that assess these 2 types of empathy have been developed. Among them, the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE) is a particularly promising, relatively new, self-report measure consisting of 31 items. To examine the cross-cultural adaptability of the QCAE, we investigated the psychometric properties of an Italian version in 2 samples and with 2 different formats of administration. Study 1 (n = 407) used archival data collected via paper and pencil; Study 2 (n = 285) used newly collected data, obtained with an online format. In these studies, in addition to the QCAE, 6 other instruments measuring empathy-related constructs (i.e., interpersonal competence, well-being, personality traits, emotion regulation, alexithymia, and emotion recognition) were administered, too. Data analysis focused on factor structure, internal consistency, and convergent validity. The findings of both studies provide support for the cross-cultural applicability of the QCAE, and reveal interesting associations between empathy and the other constructs under examination.

Self-perceived views on offender rehabilitation in detained adolescent boys: a qualitative analysis in the context of the good lives model.

Introduction: An upcoming offender rehabilitation model, the Good Lives Model (GLM), proposes that effective offender rehabilitation should adopt a dual focus: reducing recidivism risk as well as enhancing the offender's well-being. To achieve this, the GLM suggests rehabilitation should include the prosocial fulfilment of a universal set of human needs termed "primary goods." A focus on primary goods attainment and well-being is hypothesized to improve treatment motivation and achieve more sustainable desistance from future offending. Although this model sounds promising, empirical evidence for these assumptions is limited, especially among youth. Methods: Twenty Flemish and Dutch detained adolescent boys (14 to 17 years old at the time of their arrest) were interviewed during their detention using a semi-structured interview. They were asked about their well-being, needs and goals during rehabilitation, their treatment motivation, and their views on recidivism and rehabilitation. Results: The results show that a match between the boys' well-being needs, and the treatment goals set in collaboration with the institution could improve treatment motivation and rehabilitation efforts. The boys also mentioned other factors with a positive impact on their treatment motivation: increased levels of freedom and autonomy; having a future (prosocial) perspective; investing in a therapeutic alliance; and, working on individual factors (i.e., improving coping skills, school or work skills, and relationships with prosocial friends and family). Discussion: These factors closely align with working on the GLM primary goods of "excellence in work and play," "excellence in agency," and "relatedness," which can be helpful in enhancing well-being and treatment motivation in offender rehabilitation.

Factor analysis and predictive validity of the Early Risks of Physical Abuse and Neglect Scale (ERPANS): A prospective study in Dutch public youth healthcare.

Early detection of child abuse risk factors in families of new-born babies is an important task of the public youth health care system in the Netherlands. The Early Risks of Physical Abuse and Neglect Scale (ERPANS) was originally developed in Belgium as an observation scale for public child healthcare nurses. The present longitudinal study is an independent prospective validation of the ERPANS in a Dutch community sample (N = 1257) of families with a new-born. Results showed a commonality of underlying subsets of items belonging to the 'Disturbed parent-child relationship' and 'Psychological problems' factors, but the factor 'Communication problems' of the original ERPANS could not be replicated. We found that parental psychological problems were a significant predictor of family problems, including involvement of child protection authorities, at an average follow-up of 22 months. Parents who reported feeling unloved by their own parents were at higher risk of reports of serious concern to child protection authorities at 22 months after birth. These findings support the utility of at least a subset of the ERPANS items as a screening tool for child abuse risk in preventive public youth health care for new-born babies. Our research adds to a growing body of evidence which points to the importance of parental mental health problems and adverse childhood experiences as precursors to child abuse risk.

Spousal Assaulters in Outpatient Mental Health Care: The Relevance of Structured Risk Assessment.

This study examined whether a typology of perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV) could be replicated in a Dutch sample ( N = 154) of self-referred IPV perpetrators using a structured risk assessment tool for relational violence (Brief Spousal Assault Form for the Evaluation of Risk [B-SAFER]). Our findings support the previous IPV perpetrator subtypes: low-level antisocial (LLA), family only (FO), psychopathology (PP), and generally violent/antisocial (GVA). The subtypes differed on the descriptive dimensions general criminality, substance use, and mental health problems. The prevalence rates for each subtype were roughly comparable with those in previous studies. Contrary to expectation, the prevalence of the GVA subtype was relatively high in our self-referred sample compared with court-referred samples. Our findings suggest that structured risk assessment should be an integral part of the intake procedure for IPV perpetrators entering treatment, to assess their level of risk and to arrive at a tailored risk management strategy, regardless of setting or referral source.