The assessment of susceptibility to emotional contagion: A contribution to the Italian adaptation of the “Emotional Contagion Scale”

The Emotional Contagion Scale (ECS; Doherty, 1997) is a self-report instrument assessing susceptibility to emotional contagion. The study was aimed at examining its dimensionality, reliability, and validity in the Italian context. It was completed by 541 young adults (45% men) in Study 1 and 649 young adults (40% men) in Study 2. The results of a series of confirmatory factor analyses showed that a bi-factor model, with one general factor and four specific factors was supported. The general and specific factors resulted differently related to self-other differentiation, empathy, emotional fragility, masculinity, and femininity. Notwithstanding, the results posited some questions about the ECS reliability and convergent validity. Implications for scoring of the ECS and the need to revise it are discussed.