CEN-CE
Description
Data were collected from 659 Chinese university students (aged 17–23) using validated Chinese versions of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF), Experiences in Close Relationships inventory (ECR), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI-C) to assess childhood emotional neglect(CEN), attachment anxiety(AA), alexithymia(AL), and cognitive empathy(CE), respectively. We propose four sequentially progressive hypotheses: childhood emotional neglect directly impairs cognitive empathy; this relationship is mediated by individual attachment anxiety; it is also mediated by alexithymia; crucially, attachment anxiety and alexithymia constitute a sequential mediating pathway, whereby childhood emotional neglect first leads to heightened attachment anxiety, which in turn exacerbates an individual's alexithymia, ultimately significantly impairing their cognitive empathy capacity.
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Data Collection and Screening A total of 732 university students were recruited from three universities in Chengdu, China. After excluding questionnaires with incomplete or patterned responses, 659 valid responses were retained, yielding a valid response rate of 90.03%. The final sample consisted of 267 males (40.5%) and 392 females (59.5%), aged between 17 and 23 years (M = 20.8, SD = 1.3). Scoring Procedures All measures used validated Chinese versions of the original scales. Items with reverse wording were recoded accordingly. Subscale or total scores were computed according to each instrument’s scoring guidelines: Childhood Emotional Neglect (CEN) was assessed using the Emotional Neglect subscale (5 items) from the Chinese version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form (CTQ-SF) (Zhao et al., 2005; original English version: Bernstein et al., 2003). Items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Never, 5 = Always). A total score was calculated, with higher scores indicating greater neglect. Attachment Anxiety (AA) was measured using the Anxiety subscale (18 items) from the Chinese version of the Experiences in Close Relationships inventory (ECR) (Li, Zhang, & Dai, 2006; original English version: Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998). Responses were recorded on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree, 7 = Strongly agree). A total score was derived, with higher scores reflecting greater attachment anxiety. Alexithymia (AL) was assessed using the Chinese version of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) (Yi et al., 2003; original English version: Taylor, Bagby, & Parker, 2003). Items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agree). A total score was computed, with higher scores indicating greater alexithymia. Cognitive Empathy (CE) was measured using the Perspective Taking and Fantasy subscales from the Chinese version of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI-C) (Zhang et al., 2010; original English version: Davis, 1983). Items were rated on a 5-point scale (0 = Does not describe me well, 4 = Describes me very well). A combined cognitive empathy score was created by summing the two subscales, with higher scores reflecting greater cognitive empathy.
Institutions
- Southwest Jiaotong University