Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Interpersonal Reactivity Index: Analysis of Invariance and Gender Differences in Spanish Youths

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Child Psychiatry & Human Development Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Empathy is understood as a multidimensional construct involving both cognitive and emotional factors for which, traditionally, gender differences have been reported. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis in Catalog Sel Documents Psychol 10:1–19, 1980) is an instrument made up of four subscales, each measuring a different dimension of the global concept of empathy. Attending to gender differences, the present study’s objective is twofold. First, it aims to determine, conceptually speaking, whether or not the model analyzed by this instrument is equivalent for the two sexes. Second, it aims to determine which dimensions involved in empathy most strongly predict gender differences. The results convey that the proposed model is invariant between boys and girls, although the dimensions exhibited significant differences of magnitude as a function of sex. Mainly two variables (Considerate Social Style and Impassiveness) were capable of distinguishing between men and women. Possible reasons for these results are also discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Davis MH (1980) A multidimensional approach to individual differences in empathy. Catalog Sel Documents Psychol 10:1–19

    Google Scholar 

  2. Mehrabian A, Epstein N (1972) A measure of emotional empathy. J Pers 40:525–543

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Hoffman ML (1977) Sex differences in empathy and related behaviors. Psychol Bull 84:712–722

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Eisenberg N, Miller PA (1987) The relation of empathy to prosocial and related behaviors. Psychol Bull 101:91–119

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Eisenberg N, Miller PA, Shell R, Mcnalley S, Shea C (1991) Prosocial development in adolescence: a longitudinal study. Dev Psychol 27:849–857

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Batson CD, Turk C, Shaw L, Klein T (1995) Information function of empathic emotion: learning that we value the other’s welfare. J Pers Soc Psychol 68:300–313

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Eisenberg N, Fabes RA (1998) Prosocial development. In: Damon W, Eisenberg N (eds) Handbook of child psychology: social, emotional, and personality development, 5th edn. Wiley, New York, pp 701–778

    Google Scholar 

  8. Eisenberg N, Fabes RA, Miller PA, Fultz J, Mathy RM, Shell R, Reno R (1989) The relations of sympathy and personal distress to prosocial behavior: A multimethod study. J Pers Soc Psychol 5:55–66

    Google Scholar 

  9. Richardson DR, Hammock GS, Smith S, Gardner W, Signo M (1994) Empathy as a cognitive inhibitor of interpersonal aggression. Aggress Behav 20:275–289

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Jolliffe D, Farrington D (2004) Empathy and offending. A systematic review and meta-analysis. Aggress Violent Behav 9:441–476

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Hoffman ML (1982) Development of prosocial motivation: Empathy and guilt. In: Eisenberg N (ed) The development of prosocial behavior. Academic Press, New York, pp 281–338

    Google Scholar 

  12. Hogan R (1969) Development of an empathy scale. J Consult Clin Psychol 33:307–316

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Bryant B (1982) An index of empathy for children and adolescents. Child Dev 53:413–425

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Davis MH (1983) Measuring individual differences in empathy: evidence for a multidimensional approach. J Pers Soc Psychol 44:113–126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Baron-Cohen S, Wheelwright S (2004) The Empathy Quotient (EQ). An investigation of adults with Asperger syndrome or high functioning autism, and normal sex differences. J Autism Dev Disord 34:163–175

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Davis MH (1996) Empathy: a social psychological approach. Westview Press, Boulder

    Google Scholar 

  17. Cassels TG, Chan S, Chung W, Birch SA (2010) The role of culture in affective empathy: cultural and bicultural differences. J Cogn Cult 10:309–326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Evers C, Fischer A, Rodriguez Mosquera P, Manstead A (2005) Anger and social appraisal: a “spicy” sex difference? Emotion 5:258–266

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Mestre MV, Samper P, Frías MD, Tur A (2009) Are women more empathetic than men? A longitudinal study in adolescence. Span J Psychol 12:76–83

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Eisenberg N, Carlo G, Murphy B, Van Court P (1995) Prosocial development in late adolescence: a longitudinal study. Child Dev 66:1179–1197

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Carlo G, Raffaelli M, Laible DJ, Meyer KA (1999) Why are girls less physically aggressive than boys? Personality and parenting mediators of physical aggression. Sex Roles 40:711–729

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Carrasco MA, Delgado B, Barbero MI, Holgado FP, Del Barrio MV (2011) Psychometric properties of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index in Spanish child and adolescent population. Psicothema 23:824–831

    Google Scholar 

  23. Pérez-Albéniz A, de Paúl J, Etxeberría J, Montes MP, Torres E (2003) Psychometric properties of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index in Spanish child and adolescent population. Psicothema 15:267–272

    Google Scholar 

  24. Mestre V, Samper P, Frías MD (2002) Cognitive and emotional processes as predictors of pro-social behaviour and aggressive conduct: empathy as a modulating factor. Psicothema 14:227–232

    Google Scholar 

  25. Gutierrez M, Escartí A, Baños P (2011) Relationships among empathy, prosocial behavior, aggressiveness, self-efficacy and pupils’ personal and social responsibility. Psicothema 23:13–19

    Google Scholar 

  26. Garaigordobil M, Maganto C (2011) Empathy and conflict resolution during infancy and adolescence. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología 43:51–62

    Google Scholar 

  27. Eisenberg N, Lennon R (1983) Sex differences in empathy and related responding. Psychol Bull 94:100–131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Eisenberg N (2004) Empathy and sympathy. In: Lewis M, Haviland-Jones J (eds) Handbook of emotions. The Guildford Press, NY

    Google Scholar 

  29. Dunn J, Bretherton I, Munn P (1987) Conversations about feeling states between mothers and their young children. Dev Psychol 23:132–139

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Kuebli J, Butler S, Fivush R (1995) Mother-child talk about past events: relations of maternal language and child gender over time. Cogn Emot 9:265–293

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Fukushima H, Hiraki K (2006) Perceiving an opponent’s loss: gender-related differences in the medial-frontal negativity. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 1:149–157

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Knickmeyer R, Baron-Cohen S, Raggatt P, Taylor K, Hackett G (2006) Fetal testosterone and empathy. Horm Behav 49:282–292

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Rueckert L, Naybar N (2008) Gender differences in empathy: the role of the right hemisphere. Brain Cogn 67:162–167

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Singer T, Seymour B, O’Doherty JP, Stephan KE, Dolan RJ, Frith CD (2006) Empathic neural responses are modulated by the perceived fairness of others. Nature 439:466–469

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Marsh HW (1994) Confirmatory factor analysis models of factorial invariance: a multifaceted approach. Struct Equ Model Multidiscip J 30:841–860

    Google Scholar 

  36. Ang R, Goh DH (2010) Cyberbullying among adolescents: the role of affective and cognitive empathy and gender. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 41:387–397

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Guilé JM, Cohen D (2010) Les perturbations de empathie sont au Coeur des troubles des conduits de l’enfants et de l’adolescent. Neuropsychiatrie de l’Enfance et l’Adolescence 58:241–248

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Masi G, Manfredi A, Milone A, Muratoni P, Polidori L, Ruglioni L, Muratori F (2011) Predictors of nonresponse to psychosocial treatment in children and adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol 21:51–55

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. DiStefano C (2002) The impact of categorization with confirmatory factor analysis. Struct Equ Model 9:327–346

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Holgado FP, Chacón S, Barbero I, Vila E (2010) Polychoric versus Pearson correlations in exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of ordinal variables. Qual Quant Int J Methodol 44:153–166

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Muthén B (1993) Goodness of fit with categorical and other non-normal variables. In: Bollen KA, Long JS (eds) Testing structural equation models. Sage, New Bury, pp 205–243

    Google Scholar 

  42. Bollen K (1989) Structural equations with latent variables. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  43. Bollen K, Long J (1993) Testing structural equation models. Sage, London

    Google Scholar 

  44. Browne M, Cudeck R (1989) Single sample cross-validation indices for covariance structures. Br J Math Stat Psychol 37:62–83

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. SPSS Inc (2006) SPSS base 15.0 user’s guide. SPSS Inc, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  46. Jöreskog K, Sörbom D (1996) LISREL 8: user’s reference guide. SSI, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  47. Jöreskog K (1971) Simultaneous factor analyses in several populations. Psychometrika 36:409–426

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Baron-Cohen S (2002) The extreme male brain theory of autism. Trends Cogn Sci 6:248–254

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  49. Sapienza P, Zingales L, Maestripieri D (2009) Gender differences in financial risk aversion and career choices are affected by testosterone. Proc Nat Acad Sci 106:15268–15273

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  50. Voraek M, Dressler SG (2006) High (feminised) digit ratio (2D:4D and others) and relative thumb length: a test of developmental stability. Percept Mot Skills 105:143–152

    Google Scholar 

  51. National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) (2009) Antisocial personality disorder: treatment, management and prevention. NICE, London

    Google Scholar 

  52. Alcalá V, Camacho M, Giner D, Giner J, Ibáñez E (2006) Affections and gender. Psicothema 8:166–171

    Google Scholar 

  53. Brody LR, Hall JA (2000) Gender, emotion, and expression. In: Lewis M, Haviland-Jones JM (eds) Handbook of emotions. Guilford Press, New York, pp 338–349

    Google Scholar 

  54. Fabes R, Martin C (1991) Gender and age stereotypes of emotionality. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 17:532–540

    Article  Google Scholar 

  55. Grossman M, Wood W (1993) Sex difference in intensity of emotional experience: a social interpretation. J Pers Soc Psychol 65:1010–1022

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  56. Kelly J, Hustson-Comeaux S (1999) Gender-emotion stereotypes are context specific. Sex Roles 40:107–120

    Article  Google Scholar 

  57. Zahn-Waxler C, Robinson J (1995) Empathy and guilt: early origins of feelings of responsibility. In: Fisher K, Tangney J (eds) Self- conscious emotions: shame, guilt, embarrassment, and pride. Guilford, New York, pp 143–173

    Google Scholar 

  58. Lennon R, Eisenberg N (1987) Gender and age differences in empathy and sympathy. In: Eisenberg N, Strayer J (eds) Empathy and its development. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 215–240

    Google Scholar 

  59. Hastings RP, Kovshoff H, Brown T, Ward NJ, Espinosa F, Remington B (2005) Coping strategies in mothers and fathers of preschool and school-age children with autism. Autism 9:377–391

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  60. Geary DC (1998) Male, female. The evolution of human sex differences. APA, Washington

    Book  Google Scholar 

  61. Cross S, Madson L (1997) Models of the self: self-construal and gender. Psychol Bull 122:5–37

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  62. Hodges SD, Klein K (2001) Regulating the costs of empathy: the price of being human. Invit Pap J Socioecon 30:437–452

    Google Scholar 

  63. Baron-Cohen S, Knickmeyer RC, Belmonte MK (2005) Sex differences in the brain: implications for explaining autism. Science 310:819–823

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  64. Honk J, Schutter D, Bos P, Kruijt A, Lentjes E, Baron-Cohen S (2011) Testosterone administration impairs cognitive empathy in women depending on second-to-fourth digit ratio. Proc Nat Acad Sci 108:3448–3452

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  65. Pennebaker JW, Groom CJ, Loew D, Dabbs J (2004) Testosterone as a social inhibitor: two case studies of the effect of testosterone treatment on language. J Abnorm Psychol 113:172–175

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  66. Baron-Cohen S, Lombardo MV, Auyeung B, Ashwin E, Chakrabarti B, Knickmeyer R (2011) Why are autism spectrum conditions more prevalent in males? PLoSBiol 9:e1001081. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001081

    Article  Google Scholar 

  67. Chapman E, Baron-Cohen S, Auyeung B, Knickmeyer R, Taylor K, Hackett G (2006) Fetal testosterone and empathy: evidence from the Empathy Quotient (EQ) and the ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’ test. Soc Neurosci 1:135–148

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  68. Sisk CL, Zehr JL (2005) Pubertal hormones organize the adolescent brain and behavior. Front Neuroendocrinol 26:163–174

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  69. DeCatanzaro D (1998) Motivation and emotion: evolutionary, physiological, developmental, and social perspectives. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River

    Google Scholar 

  70. Zak PJ, Stanton A, Ahmadi S (2007) Oxytocin increases generosity in humans. PLoS One 2:e1128. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001128

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  71. Baron-Cohen S, Wheelwright S, Skinner R (2001) The autism-spectrum quotient (AQ): evidence from Asperger syndrome/high-functioning autism, males and females, scientists and mathematicians. J Autism Dev Disord 31:5–17

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  72. Rueckert L, Naybar N (2008) Gender differences in empathy: the role of the right hemisphere. Brain Cogn 67:162–167

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  73. Carrasco MA, Holgado FP, Del Barrio MV, Barbero MI (2008) Incremental validity: an applied study using different informants and measurements. Accion Psicológica 5:65–76

    Google Scholar 

  74. Chacón S, Shadish W (2008) Validez en evaluación de programas. In: Anguera MT, Chacón S, Blanco A (eds) Evaluación de programas sociales y sanitarios. Síntesis, Madrid, pp 69–101

    Google Scholar 

  75. Shadish WR, Cook T, Campbell D (2002) Experimental and quasi-experimental design for generalized causal inference. Houghton–Mifflin, Boston

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Methodology, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, UNED, C/Juan del Rosal, 10 (Ciudad Universitaria), 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Francisco Pablo Holgado Tello

  2. Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, UNED, C/Juan del Rosal, 10 (Ciudad Universitaria), 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Begoña Delgado Egido

  3. Department of Personality, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, UNED, C/Juan del Rosal, 10 (Ciudad Universitaria), 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Miguel A. Carrasco Ortiz & M. V. Del Barrio Gandara

Authors
  1. Francisco Pablo Holgado Tello
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Begoña Delgado Egido
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Miguel A. Carrasco Ortiz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. M. V. Del Barrio Gandara
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Francisco Pablo Holgado Tello.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Holgado Tello, F.P., Delgado Egido, B., Carrasco Ortiz, M.A. et al. Interpersonal Reactivity Index: Analysis of Invariance and Gender Differences in Spanish Youths. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 44, 320–333 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-012-0327-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-012-0327-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation