Abstract
Alexithymia is defined as the lack of words to describe emotions and is associated with different psychopathologies. Various tools have been developed for measuring alexithymia; each has its limitations. A new questionnaire, Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ), was developed to simultaneously assess positive and negative dimensions. Validation of such a tool in different cultures allows cross-cultural health psychology studies and facilitates knowledge transfer in the field. We aimed to examine the psychometric features of the PAQ in the Farsi-speaking population in Iran. Four-hundred-twenty-nine university students were asked to complete the PAQ, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and emotion regulation questionnaire (ERQ). Concurrent validity, discriminant validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability and factor structure were investigated. Confirmatory factor analysis showed a five-factor model identical to the original questionnaire. The questionnaire indicated good internal consistency (0.82 < α < 0.94). Test-retest reliability was acceptable for all subscales. The correlations between PAQ and its subscales with BDI-II, BAI, and TAS, and expression suppression subscale of ERQ were strong for concurrent validity. Concerning the discriminant validity, PAQ and its subscales were not correlated with reappraisal subscales of ERQ. The present findings suggest that the Farsi version of PAQ has strong psychometric properties and is appropriate for use in the Farsi-speaking population.
Highlights
Sifneos (1973) introduced alexithymia by describing psychosomatic patients who could not find appropriate words to express their emotions
Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ), the only alexithymia measure including the valence of emotions, consists of five subscales: negative-difficulty identifying feelings (N-DIF), positive-difficulty identifying feelings (P-DIF), negative-difficulty describing feelings (N-DDF), positive-difficulty describing feelings (P-DDF), and general-externally orientated thinking (G-externally oriented thinking (EOT))
The minimum and maximum mean and standard deviation belonged to the P-DIF and the general EOT (G-EOT) subscales, respectively (M = 9.84, SD = 4.96; M = 21.38, and SD = 9.57)
Summary
Sifneos (1973) introduced alexithymia by describing psychosomatic patients who could not find appropriate words to express their emotions. DSM 5 refers to psychosomatic disorders in Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders (Moldovan et al, 2015). In all disorders of somatic symptom and related disorders, physical symptoms along with distress and impairment are prominent (American Psychiatric and Association [APA]., 2013). Alexithymia is one of the salient features of psychosomatic disorders. These patients show somatic symptoms instead of expressing emotions. Alexithymia was coined first as a standard feature in psychosomatic disorders, it is PAQ Validation in Iran prevalent in the normal population (Honkalampi et al, 2000; Kokkonen et al, 2001). McCallum et al (2003) showed that alexithymia could affect the treatment outcomes by interfering with the improvement of general symptoms
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