@article{BreilKanskePittigetal.2021, author = {Breil, Christina and Kanske, Philipp and Pittig, Roxana and B{\"o}ckler, Anne}, title = {A revised instrument for the assessment of empathy and Theory of Mind in adolescents: Introducing the EmpaToM-Y}, series = {Behavior Research Methods}, volume = {53}, journal = {Behavior Research Methods}, doi = {10.3758/s13428-021-01589-3}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-302877}, pages = {2487-2501}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Empathy and Theory of Mind (ToM) are two core components of social understanding. The EmpaToM is a validated social video task that allows for independent manipulation and assessment of the two capacities. First applications revealed that empathy and ToM are dissociable constructs on a neuronal as well as on a behavioral level. As the EmpaToM has been designed for the assessment of social understanding in adults, it has a high degree of complexity and comprises topics that are inadequate for minors. For this reason, we designed a new version of the EmpaToM that is especially suited to measure empathy and ToM in youths. In experiment 1, we successfully validated the EmpaToM-Y on the original EmpaToM in an adult sample (N = 61), revealing a similar pattern of results across tasks and strong correlations of all constructs. As intended, the performance measure for ToM and the control condition of the EmpaToM-Y showed reduced difficulty. In experiment 2, we tested the feasibility of the EmpaToM-Y in a group of teenagers (N = 36). Results indicate a reliable empathy induction and higher demands of ToM questions for adolescents. We provide a promising task for future research targeting inter-individual variability of socio-cognitive and socio-affective capacities as well as their precursors and outcomes in healthy minors and clinical populations.}, language = {en} }