Original article
Iloraz Empatii i Myślenia Usystematyzowanego u dzieci. Psychometric evaluation of Child EQ-SQ Questionnaire’s Polish adaptation

In the present study a psychometric evaluation of the Polish adaptation of the Child EQ-SQ Questionnaire was conducted. The Child EQ-SQ Questionnaire contains two scales: the Empathy Quotient, which examines the ability to recognize someone else’s emotions and thoughts, and the Systemizing Quotient, which evaluates the tendency to construct systems, analyse variables in the system and explore behavioural rules. The Child EQ-SQ Questionnaire was created to investigate children’s traits, but it is filled out by the parents. The questionnaire contains 55 questions, which describe the child’s behaviour in different situations. Participants were 169 parents of children aged 1.11-13.5 years. Linguistic equivalence was analysed based on the questionnaire results of 27 bilingual parents. The rest of participants’ results (N = 142) were used to measure the adapted questionnaire’s theoretical accuracy. Correlation analyses of the Polish and original version of the questionnaire allows the Polish version to be accepted as the translational equal. Psychometric evaluation verification of the Child EQ-SQ Questionnaire’s Polish version also indicates, similarly to the English version, that the Polish adaptation is characterized by satisfactory psychometric parameters. Adaptation from English to Polish of the Child EQ-SQ Questionnaire (Polish: Iloraz Empatii i Myślenia Usystematyzowanego u dzieci – IEiMU) is linguistically and psychometrically similar to the original. Initial results show that IEiMU is a reliable tool for children, measuring empathizing and systemizing.