Key Words: Undergraduate medical education, Empathy, Jefferson Empathy

Objective: The aim of this study was to adapt the student version of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE) to Turkish medical students in order to assess its reliability and validity, and to analyze the gender and year differences. Materials and Methods: The student version of the JSPE was translated into Turkish using back-translation procedures, and was administered to 752 medical school students from the first to fifth years of study. To assess the dimensionality of the scale, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for categorical data was carried out. Internal consistency was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha. Subscale scores were compared in terms of gender and year. Results: The three-dimensional structure of the JSPE was confirmed by CFA except item 18. The internal consistencies of the subscales were 0.83, 0.70 and 0.60, respectively. There were statistically significant gender and medical school year differences in terms of “perspective taking ” and “compassionate care ” scores. Conclusion: The student version of JSPE was successfully adapted, and the adapted scale can be used in Turkey. (Marmara Medical Journal 2012;25:87-92