Alexithymia and its measurement: confirmatory factor analyses of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire

Abstract

Alexithymia refers to the difficulties an individual has in experiencing and expressing feelings. The 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the Bermond–Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire (BVAQ) with two parallel versions of 20 items have been constructed to measure it. The present study compared the psychometric properties of these two self-report questionnaires in English (N=290) and French (N=322) language versions. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the fit between the hypothesized factors and the data. Results revealed a better fit to the data for the second version of the BVAQ (BVAQ-20B) for both language versions as compared to the TAS-20, the whole BVAQ, or the first version of the BVAQ (BVAQ-20A). Additionally, the factor comparison of both language versions indicated that only the factorial structure of the BVAQ-20B was replicable across languages. Concurrent validity of the questionnaires is discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.