Examining the Incremental Validity of the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ) Relative to the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20).

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  • Additional Information
    • Source:
      Publisher: Informa Healthcare Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 1260201 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1532-7752 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00223891 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Pers Assess Subsets: MEDLINE
    • Publication Information:
      Publication: London : Informa Healthcare
      Original Publication: [Burbank, Calif.] Society for Personality Assessment.
    • Subject Terms:
      Affective Symptoms*/diagnosis ; Affective Symptoms*/psychology ; Emotions*; Humans ; Reproducibility of Results ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Self Report ; Psychometrics
    • Abstract:
      The 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) is the most widely used instrument for assessing alexithymia, with more than 25 years of research supporting its reliability and validity. The items that compose this scale were written to operationalize the components of the construct that are based on clinical observations of patients and thought to reflect deficits in the cognitive processing of emotions. The Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ) is a recently introduced measure and is based on a theoretical attention-appraisal model of alexithymia. An important step with any newly developed measure is to evaluate whether it demonstrates incremental validity over existing measures. In this study using a community sample ( N  = 759), a series of hierarchical regression analyses were conducted that included an array of measures assessing constructs closely associated with alexithymia. Overall, the TAS-20 showed strong associations with these various constructs to which the PAQ was unable to add any meaningful increase in prediction relative to the TAS-20. We conclude that until future studies with clinical samples using several different criterion variables demonstrate incremental validity of the PAQ, the TAS-20 should remain the self-report measure of choice for clinicians and researchers assessing alexithymia, albeit as part of a multi-method approach.
    • Publication Date:
      Date Created: 20230505 Date Completed: 20240226 Latest Revision: 20240607
    • Publication Date:
      20240607
    • Accession Number:
      10.1080/00223891.2023.2201831
    • Accession Number:
      37144843