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Can alexithymia be assessed in adolescents? Psychometric properties of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale in younger, middle, and older adolescents
- Source :
- Psychological Assessment. 22:798-808
- Publication Year :
- 2010
- Publisher :
- American Psychological Association (APA), 2010.
-
Abstract
- The 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20; Bagby, Parker, & Taylor, 1994; Bagby, Taylor, & Parker, 1994) is the most widely used self-report measure of the alexithymia construct. The TAS-20 comprises 3 factors that assess difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings, and externally oriented thinking. Although the instrument is being increasingly used with adolescent respondents, the psychometric properties of the TAS-20 have not been systematically evaluated in preadult populations. In the present study, we examined measurement invariance of the factor structure, internal reliability, and mean levels of responses on the TAS-20 in groups of younger adolescents (aged 13-14 years), middle adolescents (aged 15-16 years), and older adolescents (aged 17-18 years), as well as in a comparison group of young adults (aged 19-21 years). Formal readability analysis of the TAS-20 assessment was also conducted. Results revealed systematic age differences in the factor structure and psychometric properties of the TAS-20, with the quality of measurement progressively deteriorating with younger age. Much of this effect could be attributed to the reading difficulty of the scale. The use of the TAS-20 with teenage respondents is not recommended without appropriate adaptation and further psychometric validation. Several adaptation strategies are discussed.
- Subjects :
- Male
Canada
animal structures
Adolescent
Personality Inventory
Psychometrics
media_common.quotation_subject
Psychology, Adolescent
Test validity
Developmental psychology
Young Adult
03 medical and health sciences
Toronto Alexithymia Scale
0302 clinical medicine
Alexithymia
Reference Values
medicine
Humans
Personality
Measurement invariance
Affective Symptoms
Big Five personality traits
Personality test
10. No inequality
Internal-External Control
media_common
medicine.diagnostic_test
Age Factors
Reproducibility of Results
medicine.disease
030227 psychiatry
Psychiatry and Mental health
Clinical Psychology
Female
Psychology
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 1939134X and 10403590
- Volume :
- 22
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Psychological Assessment
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....26f1a6b88ed0f5c31269855904fd0121