[Testing and validation of the 26-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale in a representative population sample]

This paper presents the authorized German version of the 26-item Toronto alexithymia scale (TAS-26). Due to the fact, that the revised version of this questionnaire (TAS-20) displays low reliability concerning the scale "external oriented thinking" in the German version, we decided to reinvestigate all TAS-26 items. In a representative sample of the German population (N=2047), the four factor structure of the original version could be reproduced and reliabilities for the four scales as well as for a pooled 5th scale (scales 1 to 3) varied satisfyingly between r=.67 to r=.84. TAS-scale no. 4 "reduced daydreaming" correlated negatively with other TAS scales in this German version also, so we can not recommend to use this construct for the study of alexithymia. Scale values proved to be independent from age and sex, whereas a clear relation with education could be detected: persons with low education scored high on alexithymia scales. To validate the German version of the TAS-26, a mood questionnaire and a body experience questionnaire were used. It could be shown that high alexithymia scores were associated with negative body image and undesirable emotions. It is discussed whether the latter correlation is due to a methodological artefact, since persons with high alexithymia scores tend to prefer middle categories of the mood questionnaire.