Development of a Revised Urdu Version of the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale

Abstract

Abstract: Introduction: The Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) is the most widely used instrument to assess alexithymia and has recently been translated into Urdu. There are several shortcomings with this translation (e.g., removal of four items from the original instrument, grammatical errors, poor/complex item translation) that compromise the assessment of alexithymia for Urdu-speaking persons. In this study, we report the development of a revised Urdu translation of the TAS-20 (TAS-20-UR). Methods: All 20 items of the original TAS-20 were translated into Urdu using a back-translation method, administered to participants from Pakistan (N = 524), and subjected to psychometric analyses. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to examine the factor structure of the TAS-20-UR. We also examined the measurement invariance of the scale across Pakistani men and women as well as Pakistani and Canadian community adults using multigroup CFA (MGCFA). Results: The internal reliability was adequate. The three-factor model, which has been recovered in most translations of the scale, produced an adequate-to-good fit. MGCFA supported strict invariance across Pakistani men and women, and partial scalar invariance across Pakistani and Canadian community adults. Limitations: Further research is required to confirm the validity of the TAS-20-UR. Also, the findings are only generalizable to literate individuals in Pakistan since data was not collected from non-Urdu readers. Discussion: The TAS-20-UR is reliable and captures the alexithymia construct; we recommend it for use in research settings in which Urdu is spoken.

Keywords

• alexithymia
• cognitive processing of emotions
• confirmatory factor analysis
• Pakistan
• Urdu translation