Development of the Alexithymia Scale for Children: a preliminary study

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Child Development
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Alexithymia, characterized by difficulty identifying and describing emotions, impacts social and emotional development.
• Existing measures may not adequately capture alexithymia in school-aged children from a teacher's perspective.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Alexithymia Scale for Children-Teacher Form (ASC-T).
• To assess the reliability and validity of the ASC-T in a sample of elementary schoolchildren.

Main Methods:

• Development of the ASC-T with 286 elementary schoolchildren.
• Factor analysis to determine the underlying structure of the scale.
• Internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and correlational analyses with the Yatabe-Guilford Personality Test were conducted.

Main Results:

• Factor analysis identified two primary alexithymia-related factors: Difficulty in Describing Feelings and Difficulty Relating to Others.
• The scale demonstrated adequate internal consistency and test-retest reliability over two months.
• Significant correlations (r = .24 to .39) were found with the Yatabe-Guilford Personality Test, supporting construct validity.

Conclusions:

• The Alexithymia Scale for Children-Teacher Form is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing alexithymia in children.
• The findings highlight the importance of 'Difficulty in Describing Feelings' and 'Difficulty Relating to Others' as core components of childhood alexithymia.
• Further research may explore other alexithymia constructs not captured by this initial form.