Factor Structure of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale in a Community Sample of Korean Immigrants in Canada

Alexithymia is characterized by deficits in emotion recognition, and is associated with several psychological disorders. It is most commonly assessed with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), a self-report measure with three subscales: difficulty identifying emotions; difficulty describing emotions; and externally oriented thinking (EOT).

This study aims to establish the psychometric properties, and to validate the factor structure, of a Korean translation of the TAS-20. A community sample of first generation South Korean immigrants (n = 225) in Toronto, Canada completed the measure. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed, where model fit of the scale against the traditional three-factor model of alexithymia and four alternative models were assessed and compared.

The results demonstrated modest fit for the traditional three factor model of alexithymia, and that a four-factor model offered the best fit to the data; however, fit indices consistently fell below established standards. These findings may be due to the low internal consistency of the EOT subscale, consistent with low EOT subscale reliabilities in other TAS-20 translations. Translation problems may have also contributed to the findings.

Indeed, serious questions have been raised about the cultural appropriateness of EOT, especially regarding its coherence and the extent to which it ought to be understood as pathological (Dere, Falk & Ryder, 2012). The failure to replicate the factor structure of alexithymia in a Korean immigrant sample suggests that more research is needed to tease apart whether the problems are due to conceptual or translation issues, and to better understand alexithymia in different cultural contexts.