Evaluación de la empatía diádica: Análisis de las propiedades psicométricas del Índice de Reactividad Interpersonal en Parejas (IRIC-C) en contexto chileno

Abstract

In recent years, empathy became part of the set of variables that allow us to gain insight about a variety of aspects about how couples handle their relationships. This makes it necessary to make use of properly validated instruments to evaluate this construct. The goal of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chilean version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index for Couples (IRIC-C) in two independent samples. One was a sample of university students (N = 612) and the other was taken from the general population (N = 766) of the city of Antofagasta, Chile. The internal consistency indexes as appropriate for the perspective taking scale, but they fell below the optimal level for the empathic concern scale. A confirmatory factor analysis corroborated the two-dimensional structure of the instrument and the invariance across gender. We also present evidence of discriminant validity and discuss the implications, contributions and limitations of the results obtained.