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Instrument Development

Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children

Available in Arabic, Croatian, Dutch, English, Farsi, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, and Urdu; 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.

  • 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.

  • For validation of the questionnaire in 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.

  • 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, 131-143.

  • For validation of the questionnaire in 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.

  • 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. (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 Kexin Liu 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.