The Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire-Short Form (PAQ-S): A 6-item measure of alexithymia

Background: Alexithymia is a trait characterized by difficulties identifying feelings, difficulties describing feel-ings, and externally orientated thinking. It is widely regarded as an important transdiagnostic risk factor for a range of psychopathologies, including depressive and anxiety disorders. Whilst several well-validated psycho-metric measures of alexithymia exist, these are relatively lengthy, thus limiting their utility in time-pressured settings. In this paper, we address this gap by introducing and validating a brief 6-item version of the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire, called the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire-Short Form (PAQ-S).Method: Across two studies with adult samples (Study 1 N = 508 United States community; Study 2 = 378 Australian college students), we examined the psychometric properties of the PAQ-S in terms of its factor structure, reliability, and concurrent/criterion validity.Results: In exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, all PAQ-S items loaded well on a single general alex-ithymia factor. The PAQ-S total score had high reliability, and correlated as expected with the long-form of the PAQ, as well as other established markers of alexithymia, emotion regulation, and affective disorder symptoms. Limitations: Our samples were general community or college student samples from two Western countries; future validation work in clinical samples and more diverse cultural groups is thus needed.Conclusions: The PAQ-S retains the psychometric strengths of the PAQ. As such, the PAQ-S can be used as a quick, robust measure of overall alexithymia levels. The introduction of the PAQ-S hence enables valid assessments of alexithymia in a more diverse range of settings and research designs.

Automated summary

This paper introduces a brief 6-item version of the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ-S) as a measure of an important transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathologies. The PAQ-S shows good psychometric properties in terms of factor structure, reliability, and concurrent/criterion validity. It can serve as a quick and robust measure of overall alexithymia levels.