Validation in Spanish of the interpersonal reactivity index –IRI- In Colombian university students

Abstract

This article explores the factorial dimensions of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index -IRI (Davis, 1980; 1983), one of the most widely used self-report measures to assess the components of empathy. The analysis is carried out with the information of 1779 first-level university students in the years 2018 and 2019 in a Colombian public university. In order to contribute to a better adaptation of the instrument to the Colombian context, the original four-factor structure proposed by the author is validated. For this purpose, a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) estimated by Diagonalized Weighted Least Squares (WLSD) is used. The results show that the Spanish version applied to Colombian students has similar psychometric characteristics to the original version. However, fit problems are found for nine items, apparently due to difficulties in understanding the Spanish version. The final model presents better fit indicators that indicate validity in the instrument for the evaluation of the different components of empathy.