The Dutch Language Version of the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia: Reliability, Factor Structure and Concurrent Validity

Authors

  • Ruth Inslegers Department of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting, Ghent University
  • Reitske Meganck Department of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting, Ghent University
  • Els Ooms Department of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting, Ghent University
  • Stijn Vanheule Department of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting, Ghent University
  • Graeme J Taylor Departments of Psychiatry, University of Toronto and Mount Sinai Hospital
  • R. Michael Bagby Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Toronto and Center for Addiction and Mental Health
  • Filip De Fruyt Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Ghent University
  • Mattias Desmet Department of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting, Ghent University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5334/pb-53-1-93

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Dutch version of the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia (TSIA) in a clinical sample. The TSIA and the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) were administered to 85 psychiatric inpatients and to 76 medical outpatients with the symptom of tinnitus. Both internal and inter-rater reliability were acceptable. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the hierarchical, 4-factor structure with 4 lower-order factors nested within 2 higher-order latent factors, previously obtained with English, German, and Italian versions. Concurrent validity was supported by significant correlations between the TSIA and the TAS-20 total scores although there were some differences between the psychiatric subsample and the medical subsample. While further studies are needed to assess the convergent and discriminant validity of the TSIA, the results support its use as a measure of alexithymia.

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Published

2013-03-01

Issue

Vol. 53 No. 1 (2013)

Section

Research Article

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Copyright (c) 2013 The Author(s)

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