Overview
Alexithymia is a condition characterized by a low degree of emotional self-awareness, including difficulty identifying and describing one’s own feelings, difficulty recognising emotional experiences from internal bodily signals, and a thinking style that focuses more on the external reality and less on emotion (Bagby et al., 2020; Nemiah et al., 1976; Taylor et al., 1991).The AQC is a 20-item measure developed in the Netherlands from the Toronto Alexithymia Scale for adults (TAS-20: Bagby et al., 1994). The items of the TAS-20 were rewritten for children. As with the adult measure the ACQ has three subscale: Difficulty Identifying Feelings, Difficulty Describing Feelings and Externally-Oriented Thinking.Scoring & Interpretation
Children are asked to score each item on a three-point response scale (0 = not true; 1 = a bit true; 2 = true). The TAS-20 has a five-point- scale however in order to simplify the response scale for children and provide clear verbal labels with each answer category the three-point response was chosen. The measure has three subscales: Difficulty Identifying Feelings (DIF), Difficulty Describing Feelings (DDF). Externally-orientated Thinking (EOT). Items 4, 5, 10, 18, 19 are reverse scored. Higher scores indicating greater degree of alexithymic traits.Psychometric Properties
Internal Consistency
The internal consistency using the whole sample for two scales of the alexithymia questionnaire for children was good: DIF and DDF both showed a Cronbach's alpha around .75. EOT did not meet the criteria for internal consistency (.29).
Test-Retest Reliability
Factor Structure
Confirmatory factor analysis of the three-factor model was run. Models were run with the whole sample and separatley for the two age groups: Primary school children (mean age 11 years and 2 months) and secondary school children (mean age 13 years and 7 months). The authors report that the three-factor structure was applicable for both groups (based on RMSEA and chi-square difference tests). Although full measurement invariance was not acheived, Factor loading for thr DIF and DDF subscales were above .40 however only three of the eight EOT factor loading were acceptable.
Validity
Correlations run using the three factors of the ACQ and the Somatics Complaints List (SCL) and Mood Questionnaire (Rieffe et al., 2002, 2004).The DIF and DDF produced results in the expected directions. The EOT did not correlate with the SCL or mood scales.
Measurement Invariance
Partial measurement invariance for age.