Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children
Available in Dutch, Italian and Farsi; 20 items
The alexithymia questionnaire for children is based on the original Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20 (TAS-20, Bagby, Parker & Taylor, 1994) that assesses alexithymia in adults. The Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children consists of 20 items that represent the three factors Difficulty identifying feelings, Difficulty describing feelings and Externally oriented thinking. The item response format is: not true, a bit true, true.
Rieffe, C., Oosterveld, P., & Meerum Terwogt, M. (2006). An alexithymia questionnaire for children: Factorial and concurrent validation results. Personality and Individual Differences, 40, 123-133.
For validation of the questionnaire in Italian:
Di Trani M., Tomassetti N., Bonadies M., Capozzi F., De Gennaro L., Presaghi F., Solano L. (2009). Un Questionario Italiano per l'Alessitimia in Eta Evolutiva: struttura fattoriale e attendibilita. Psicologia della Salute, 2, p. 131-143.
For validation of the questionnaire in Farsi:
Rieffe, C., Oosterveld, P., Meerum Terwogt, M., Novin, S., Nasiri, H., & Latifian, M. (2010). Relationship between alexithymia, mood and internalizing symptoms in children and young adolescents: Evidence from an Iranian sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 48, 425-430.
For validation of the questionnaire in Hindi:
Shukla Mishra, V., Maudgal, S., Theunissen, S.C.P.M., & Rieffe, C. (in press). Alexithymia in children with cancer and their siblings. Journal of Psychosomatic Research.
Bagby, R.M., Parker, J.D.A. & Taylor, G.J. (1994). The twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale: Part I, Item selection and cross-validation of the factor structure. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 38, 23-32.
You can download the English version of the
Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children here. Printing double-sided will form a booklet.