Structure of the Twenty-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale

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Abstract
The 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) purportedly measures 3 intercorrelated dimensions of the alexithymia construct (a) difficulties identifying feelings (DIF), (b) difficulties describing feelings (DDF), and (c) externally oriented thinking (EOT). The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the factor structure of the TAS-20 with full-information item factor analysis in 2 diverse samples: medical students (n = 219) and psychiatric (psychoactive substance dependent-abusing) inpatients (n = 204). In each group, we estimated the parameters of l-, 2-, 3-, and 4-factor models. None of the various factor solutions resulted in clean, simple structures in either sample. In the student sample, the data were best represented (although not well) by a 3-dimensional model: DIF, DDF, and EOT. In the psychiatric sample, however, the 3-dimensional solution was quite different; DIF and DDF formed 1 emotional awareness deficits factor, and EOT split into 2 unrelated factors. We concluded that alexithymia, ...