Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Psychometric Properties of the Greek Jefferson Scale of Empathy—Student Version among Undergraduate Medical Students and its Association with Potential Predictors

Polychronis Voultsos
* ORCID logo ,
Petros Galanis
ORCID logo ,
Marianna-Foteini Α. Dafni
ORCID logo ,
Venetia-Sofia Velonaki
ORCID logo ,
Georgia-Neta Andreou
,
Leda Kovatsi
Version 1 : Received: 2 January 2024 / Approved: 3 January 2024 / Online: 3 January 2024 (09:10:01 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Voultsos, P.; Galanis, P.; Dafni, M.-F.A.; Velonaki, V.-S.; Andreou, G.-N.; Kovatsi, L. The Greek Jefferson Scale of Empathy—Medical Student Version (JSE-S): Psychometric Properties and Its Associated Factors. Behav. Sci. 2024, 14, 195. Voultsos, P.; Galanis, P.; Dafni, M.-F.A.; Velonaki, V.-S.; Andreou, G.-N.; Kovatsi, L. The Greek Jefferson Scale of Empathy—Medical Student Version (JSE-S): Psychometric Properties and Its Associated Factors. Behav. Sci. 2024, 14, 195.

Abstract

The present study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Greek version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy—Student version (JSE-S) and its association with potential predictors among Greek-speaking undergraduate medical students. This study adopted a cross-sectional, comparative–descriptive research design. The study was conducted during October and November 2023. Cronbach’s α for the JSE-S was 0.846. Cronbach’s α values for the factors “perspective taking”, “compassionate care”, and “standing in the patient’s shoes” were 0.800, 0.715, and 0.748, respectively. The intraclass correlation coefficient for the JSE-S score in the test–retest study was 0.827 (95% CI = 0.647 to 0.915, p-value < 0.001), indicating a high level of reliability. The participants showed moderate empathy levels. Females scored higher than males on the Greek version of the JSE-S (108.8 vs. 102.8, p-value < 0.001). Moreover, students enrolled in the fourth academic year showed higher empathy mean scores than those enrolled in the first year (108.6 vs. 103.6, p-value = 0.012). Statistically significant empathy differences by specialty preferences or faith in God/supreme power were not found. The present study provided satisfactory evidence that the Greek JSE-S is a psychometrically sound measurement instrument. Empathy differences by gender were found in line with prior literature.

Keywords

Empathy; Jefferson Scale of Empathy—Student version (JSE-S); undergraduate medical students; gender; academic year; specialty preferences; belief in God/supreme power

Subject

Social Sciences, Education

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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