Assessing alexithymia: Psychometric properties of the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire and 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale in United States adults

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

Personality and Individual Differences

ISSN

01918869

Volume

166

Publisher

Elsevier

School

School of Arts and Humanities

RAS ID

32166

Comments

Preece, D. A., Becerra, R., Allan, A., Robinson, K., Chen, W., Hasking, P., & Gross, J. J. (2020). Assessing alexithymia: Psychometric properties of the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire and 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale in United States adults. Personality and Individual Differences, 166, article 110138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110138

Abstract

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Alexithymia is a trait involving difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings, and externally orientated thinking. Over the past two decades, it has usually been assessed using the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Recently, the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ) was developed to provide more detailed facet-level (and valence-specific) analysis. To date, no studies have compared these two measures, and few data are available on the PAQ. We examined the psychometric properties of the PAQ and TAS-20 in United States adults (N = 675). Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that both measures had a theoretically congruent factor structure. While the PAQ assessed alexithymia for both negative and positive emotions, the TAS-20 assessed alexithymia only for negative emotions. All PAQ and TAS-20 subscales had good reliability, except for the TAS-20 externally orientated thinking subscale. Pearson correlations supported the convergent validity of both measures. We conclude that the PAQ and TAS-20 both have strong qualities and assess a similar alexithymia construct, however, the PAQ appears to provide a more comprehensive facet-level profile.

DOI

10.1016/j.paid.2020.110138

Access Rights

subscription content

Link to Full Text

Share

 
COinS