Development of the Crying Proneness Scale: Associations Among Crying Proneness, Empathy, Attachment, and Age

Abstract

Crying is a unique form of human emotional expression that is associated with both positive and negative evocative antecedents. This article investigates the psychometric properties of a newly developed Crying Proneness Scale by examining the factor structure, test–retest reliability, and theoretically hypothesized relationships with empathy, attachment, age, and gender. Based on an analysis of data provided by a Dutch panel (Time 1: N = 4,916, Time 2: N = 4,874), exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggest that crying proneness is a multidimensional construct best characterized by four factors called attachment tears, societal tears, sentimental/moral tears, and compassionate tears. Test–retest reliability of the scale was adequate and associations with age, gender, empathy, and attachment demonstrated expected relations. Results suggest that this scale can be used to measure crying proneness, and that it will be useful in future studies that aim to gain a better understanding of normal and pathological socioemotional development.

Acknowledgment

Portions of this article were presented at the 2012 annual meeting of the Consortium of European Research on Emotion (CERE) in Canterbury, Great Britain.

Notes

Missing data in subsequent analyses vary depending on model specification because participants might not have provided responses to all variables requested at both Time 1 and Time 2. Additionally, the Time 2 sample total reported here includes participants who might have completed the Time 2 questionnaire but not the Time 1 questionnaire, and therefore these values are not directly representative of missingness. As a result, the quantity of missing data is presented separately for each model.