Contemporary psychology, Vol. 7 No. 1, 2004.
Original scientific paper
Does the Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20 (TAS-20) have the potential to measure alexithymia in adults and adolescents?
Alija Kulenović
Vesna Buško
Danijela Jenjić
Abstract
Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20 (TAS-20) is the most frequently used instrument for the assessment of alexithymia, in research and epidemiological studies as in clinical practice. The aims of this study were (a) to evaluate the usefulness of TAS-20 for the diagnosis of alexithymia in adults (the purpose of the scale) and (b) to estimate the potential of the scale to measure the same construct in the adolescent population where no findings have been gathered to date. The answer to the first question was found by the critical review of the empirical research and experiences accumulated up to now. The paper shows that some conceptual difficulties and related decisions in finalizing the scale have a profound influence on the representativeness of its content and the score reliability, which largely reduces the diagnostic value of the instrument. The analyses of our own data obtained by TAS-20 administered on 269 high-school students, confirmed the weaknesses shown in previous studies. Moreover, the flaws proved to be even more pronounced in this population. Further, the level of alexithymia in adolescents was shown to be rather high and structured in a way that the existence of specific secondary alexityimia seemed reasonable to assume. Due to serious conceptual and operational limitations it was concluded that TAS-20 cannot be recommended unconditionally for the diagnosis of alexithymia. Its profound revision is suggested which should enable better description of the syndrome and also more in-depth research of its nature within adult and adolescent population.
Keywords
Alexithymia; adolescents; TAS-20
Hrčak ID:
3243
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2004.
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