It asks about five specific traumatic events that occurred prior to and including the age of 17:

- Death of a very close friend or family member

- Major upheaval between parents (E.G.,  divorce, separation)

- Traumatic sexual experience (e.g., being raped, molested)

- Victim of violence (e.g., child abuse)

- Other major upheaval that may have shaped their life or personality significantly

Childhood trauma

- Perspective Taking

- Empathic Concern

- Fantasy

- Personal Distress

Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)

There are three facets that are recoverable from the EQ: 

- Cognitive Empathy

- Affective Empathy

- Social Skills

Empathy (EQ)

- Empathy (EQ)

- Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)

- Childhood trauma


Syracuse University

  Traumatic events increase the risk of depression, but there is also evidence that adversity can lead to posttraumatic growth, including increased compassion and prosocial behavior.

Elevated Empathy in Adults following Childhood Trauma

Greenberg, D. M., Baron-Cohen, S., Rosenberg, N., Fonagy, P., &amp; Rentfrow, P. J. (2018). Elevated empathy in adults following childhood trauma. PLOS ONE, 13(10). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203886 

Reference

- Asked adults to report if they had a history of childhood trauma and to complete a measure of trait empathy, the Empathy Quotient (EQ)

- Asked an independent sample of adults to complete the same task using a different empathy measure, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) 

Research about Elevated Empathy in Adults

Measures about Elevated Empathy in Adults

- Findings in Study 1

- Findings in Study 2

- Common findings

Summary of Findings

- A stronger capacity for mentalizing is protective and that the ability to mentalize a trauma could be a resilience factor.

- Empathy (= cognitive empathy + affective empathy) and mentalizing (= cognitive empathy ) are related but different constructs.

- Relationship between empathy and symptoms are complex. Undue weight on affective empathy might manifest clinically as maladaptively high levels of sensitivity (e.g. borderline personality disorder)

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