Structural stability and functional changes of the cognitive style of empathizing-systemizing in university students at late adolescence: A study used fixed-point observations data including the COVID-19 pandemic period

Cognitive styles are individuals' approaches to cognitive activities. This study examined the stability and variation of a cognitive style of empathizing-systemizing (E-S) among university students in late adolescence. Anonymous questionnaire surveys for second-year university students were conducted in October at 2011, 2014, 2017, and 2021, although E-S function was not analyzed for 2011. The number of valid data at each year ranged 469-480 in men and 420-432 in women. To examine the stability and variation, simultaneous multi-group analyses were conducted by gender. The stability and variation of E-S structure over the study period were examined by comparing structures of subfactors of empathizing and systemizing. Changes of E-S function were examined by analyzing the effects of E-S on mental distress through cognitive appraisal/coping processes under stressful situations. As the results, the structure of E-S was found stable across all study points in the sense of configural invariance in both men and women, even under the COVID-19 pandemic. E-S function shown clearly effected on mental distress. The function of E-S was also generally maintained, although several minor variations were observed during the entire study period.