The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) is a standardized self-report measure of disposition to empathic responsiveness for the general adult population (the domain for which it was developed), and for the general adolescent population. The IRI has a number of problems, however, including some uncertainty about its factor structure, low reliabilities, and poor readability of some items for people with limited literacy skills. To address these issues, we constructed an abbreviated form of the index, the Brief IRI (B–IRI). Three studies demonstrated that this 16-item B–IRI has a clear and coherent factor structure, adequate internal consistency, measurement invariance across gender and age, and theoretically meaningful associations with a range of external criteria that support its construct validity. The B–IRI substantially preserves the psychometric properties of the long form, and we recommend its use in all research settings.

The study examined adolescents’ emotional separation and detachment from parents, analyzing their relations with connectedness and agency, with some aspects of self—other boundary regulation and with problem behavior. The participants were 331 Italian adolescents, aged from 16 to 19 years (mean age = 17.40, SD = 1.14). Separation and detachment were positively related; they were negatively related to connectedness; detachment was also negatively associated to agency. Emotional separation was negatively predicted by empathic concern, perspective-taking and separate self; emotional detachment was negatively predicted by empathic concern and self—other differentiation. Separation negatively predicted internalizing behavior, and detachment positively predicted internalizing and externalizing behavior. Globally, findings showed that emotional separation and detachment are two distinct dimensions of the parent—adolescent relationship.

Background and Objectives: The main aim of this study is to test the intergenerational transmission of the relations between coping strategies to well-being from parents to adolescents through the modeling of the coping strategies of the parents to those of the child. Methods: 154 cohabitating families composed by father, mother, and adolescent in age range between 14 and 18 (M = 16.40; SD = 1.53) took part to the research. To test the proposed model, SEM with observed variables and the integration of the APIM approach and the Bootstrapping approach was used. Results: Findings showed in both parents and adolescents significant positively relations between coping task strategy and well-being, and significant negatively relations between coping emotion strategy and well-being. Furthermore, direct positively relations between the use of specific coping strategies of father and mother and the use of the same strategies in adolescents was found. Finally, results showed the mediation of adolescents coping strategies in the relations between parental coping strategies and adolescents well-being. Conclusion: Taken as whole, our results demonstrated that coping strategies in parents were directly related to coping strategies in children and that both mothers and fathers contribute in unique ways to shape children's coping.