Alexithymia Questionnaire
Quick overview
- AQC is for children and young adolescents (10-15 years old)
- Available in many languages: Arabic, Croatian, Dutch, English, Farsi, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, and Urdu
- 20 items
- Items represent 3 factors: Difficulty identifying feelings, Difficulty describing feelings, Externally oriented thinking
- Item response format: not true, a bit true, true
- Based on the original Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20 (TAS-20, Bagby, Parker & Taylor, 1994) that assesses alexithymia in adults.
Publications about the AQC
The AQC is described in:
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.
The AQC was validated in different languages:
Arabic: Zine El Abiddine, F., & Loas, G. (2018). Psychometric properties of the Arabic version of the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children (AQC) in children and adolescents. International Journal of Culture and Mental Health. DOI: 10.1080/17542863.2018.1556716.
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, 131-143.
French: Loas, G., Dugré-Lebigre, C., Fremaux, D., Verrier, A., Wallier, J., Berthoz, S., & Corcos, M. (2010). The Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children (AQC): French translation and validation study in a convenience sample of 80 children. Encephale, 36, 302-306.
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.
Hindi: Shukla Mishra, V., Maudgal, S., Theunissen, S.C.P.M., & Rieffe, C. (2012). Alexithymia in children with cancer and their siblings. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 78, 266-268.
For the questionnaire in Croatian, Finnish, German, Hebrew, Polish, Simplified Chinese, Swedish, or Urdu (validating): Contact Jiayin Zhao for the most updated citation information and/or the questionnaire.
For the original TAS-20 questionnaire: 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.
Download AQC pdfs here:
Alexithymia Questionnaire Children [Dutch]
Alexithymia Questionnaire Children [English]
Alexithymia Questionnaire Children [Arabic]
Alexithymia Questionnaire Children [Italian]
Alexithymia Questionnaire Children [Farsi]
Alexithymia Questionnaire Children [French]
Alexithymia Questionnaire Children [Spanish]
Alexithymia Questionnaire Children [Polish]
Alexithymia Questionnaire Children [Finnish]
Alexithymia Questionnaire Children [Swedish]
Alexithymia Questionnaire Children [Urdu]
Alexithymia Questionnaire Children [Hebrew]
Alexithymia Questionnaire Children [German]
Alexithymia Questionnaire Children [Chinese] (Validating)
The syntax / guide for scoring the AQC can be downloaded here. For more info please refer to our FAQs.