Psychometric Properties of the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale in the Chilean Population

Overview

Journal Front Psychol

Date 2018 Jun 28

PMID 29946289

Citations 8

Authors

Mauricio Gonzalez-Arias

Agustin Martinez-Molina

Susan Galdames

Alfonso Urzua

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Alexithymia can be defined as inability to identify and describe emotions in the self. Has shown to be related to several psychological and pathological processes that can result in unsatisfactory interpersonal relationships and decreased social adjustment. Advances in research of alexithymia require the development and validation of assessment instruments, and its application to different population. With this aim, we studied the psychometric properties of the Twenty-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) in Chilean population using various modeling procedures (e.g., CFA, ESEM) in different structures (i.e., Correlated, Unidimensional, Hierarchical or Wording factors). Among the 10 models tested, the four-dimensional structure offered the best fit but with item-loading problems in the last factor (Pragmatic Thinking). We suggest that the studied version of the scale needs improvement (theoretical and empirical) to ensure optimal indices of validation for Chilean population.

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