Development Of A Military Alexithymia Scale

Objective:To develop a Military Alexithymia Scale (MAS) and examine its reliability and validity.Methods:Based on the literature research, combined with the questionnaire survey and case interview, the conception of military alexithymia was illustrated and its dimensions were tentatively set, while items were compiled. After a small sample test, focus group discussion, expert assessment and items modified, the Military Alexithymia Scale (MAS) was developed. The initial scale had five dimensions (including difficult feeling expression, absent feeling experience, somatic tendency, externally-oriented thinking and altered feeling coping) and 40 items.901 military personnel chosen by random cluster sampling were tested with this scale and split into two samples for exploratory factor analysis(EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis(CFA).63 of them were tested with Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) and Chinese Military Mental Health Scale (CMMHS) at the same time, while 47 of them were retested the MAS after two weeks. The reliability and validity of the scale were examined by statistics software.Results:According to the exploratory factor analysis results,5 factors were extracted, named difficult feeling expression, absent feeling experience, somatic tendency, externally-oriented thinking and altered feeling coping. There were 25 formal items and 5 lie items in the final scale when one lie subscale was added. Exploratory factor analysis of the items finally extracted 5 factors which had explained 56.087% of total variance. The results of data analysis were basically consistent with the hypothesis. Confirmatory factor analysis of the items showed: CMIN=465.515,DF=265,P=0.000,CMIN/DF=1.757,GFI=0.934,AGFI=0.9 20,IFI=0.936,TLI=0.927,CFI=0.935,RMSEA(90%CI)= 0.038(0.032-0.044). The fit index met the basic criterion and verified the structure of the scale which had the better consistency of another samples. The correlation coefficients of MAS and most factors of CMMHS were between 0.255～0.708 (P＜0.05 or 0.01). The Cronbach'a coefficient of total scale was 0.883 and factors were 0.648～0.752, P＜0.01; The split-half reliability of MAS was 0.810 and factors were 0.642～0.725, P< 0.01; The test-retest correlation coefficient of total scale was 0.791 and factors were 0.507～0.717, P＜0.01. Inter-scale correlations studies showed that the correlations of other factors were 0.479～0.845 (P<0.01). The test of the criterion validity showed:the correlation coefficients of MAS and TAS-20 were between 0.252～0.787,most of which reached a significant standard; The MAS factors were significantly correlated with most factors of EPQ, the correlation coefficients were 0.261～0.712 (P＜0.05 or 0.01)Conclusion:The development of the Military Alexithymia Scale has been preliminary completed. It has showed that the structure of the scale is in line with the theory of the basic concept. Through a series of researches on the scale, it has proved that the scale possesses acceptable psychometrics properties on reliability and validity and can be used in military psychologic researches.