The Preliminary Surveying Of Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Scale Of Chinese Version In China

We need to communicate with others. Sifneos (1973) coined the term “alexithymia”(from theGreek, a=lack of, lexis=work or word, and thymos=mood or emotion) to label a complex of featuresthat refer to severe reductions in both the cognitive and affective components of emotional experience, as itwas assumed that alexithymia-like features are common in psychosomatic patients. And correctly identifyand express emotions are very important. Alexithymia, first introduced by Sifneos, is a multifacetedconstruct and is characterized by a set of affective and cognitive deficits.The authors description ofAlexithymia, include disability to identify and describe feelings, in a concrete and reality-based cognitivestyle; and an impoverished inner emotion and a poor imagination. Several studies have demonstratedrelationships between alexithymia and various psychological disorders.In accordance with early descriptions of patients with psychosomatic complaints, the originatorsof the alexithymia concept, Nemiah and Sifneos, have always stressed the importance of the affectivecomponents (reduced emotionalizing and reduced fantasizing) as important aspects of alexithymia. In moststudies participants are classified as controls or alexithymic based on one of the Toronto AlexithymiaScales: TAS, TAS-R or TAS-20. However, none of these TAS scales measures emotionalizing; the TAS-R and TAS-20also do not measure fantasizing. Thus, the TAS scales only adequately measure thecognitive aspects of alexithymia. The Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Question-naire (BVAQ), measures allfive alexithymia features, as described by Nemiah and Sifneos, including the cognitive as well as affectivecomponents. The BVAQ has been translated into several European languages, and has,in these translations,displayed very good to acceptable psychometric properties.The purpose of this study was develop the Chinese version of the Bermond-Vorst AlexithymiaScale (BVAQ) and examine its reliability and validity. through the convenient sampling methed,320questionnaires were sent out,among which310were valid. A sample of310undergraduate students wastested We examined the Chinese version of the BVAQ ’s internal reliability.Using exploratory factoranalysis, Explanatory factor analysis of40items of the BVAQ had a similar result to the original BVAQ(Vorst&Bermond,2001), but7items displayed low factor loadings (items2,5,15,16,24,25,35);The Cronbach’s α coefficient of the Chinese version of BVAQ Scale was0.766; The correlation coefficient ofeach dimension with the BVAQ total score ranged from0.463to0.651.Conclusion: the Chinese version of BVAQ Scale was a reliable and valid measure for assessingalexithymia in Chinese-speaking sample.