Una misura per l’alessitimia in età evolutiva: validazione italiana dell’Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children.

The aims of the study were to investigate factor structure and and reliability of the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children, originally validated by Rieffe et al. (2006), on an Italian population. A total sample of 1265 participants, ranging in age from 8 to 14 years, filled in the Italian version of the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children during school time. A sub-sample (N = 29) was retested after eight weeks for an assessment of the measure’s stability. The three-factor model reported good fit indices on the total sample, even though not all items loading on the Externally Oriented Thinking (EOT) factor appeared statistically relevant. Moreover, the model was only partially invariant across gender and age groups: analysis indicated developmental gender-specific differences on Difficulty Identifying Feelings (DIF) and EOT factors. In regard to reliability, the Total Score showed a Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.66, and test-retest reliability coefficients ranged from a minimum of 0.65 (Difficulty Describing Feelings, DDF) to a maximum of 0.91 (Total Score). In conclusion, the three-factor model was confirmed and some evidence emerged concerning its generalization to gender and age-groups.