Reliability and validity of adaptation to the Turkish of the Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire and developing of Turkish short form

Özet

Objectives: Alexithymia is one of the important concepts used in the description of psychopathology. The aim of Study 1 was to adapt the Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire (BVAQ) to Turkish and to examine its validity and reliabil ity, and the aim of Study 2 to develop the Turkish short form of this scale. Methods: In Study 1, a community sample of 600 people between the ages of 18 and 73 for pilot application; and for the main application, a community sample of 766 people aged 17–66 was used. In Study 2, there was a community sample of 213 people aged 18–57, and 43 university students for test-retest. For criterion validity, 137 university stu dents were applied Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), Toronto Empathy Scale (TES) and Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS) together with BVAQ. Results: In study 1, internal consistency analysis and exploratory factor analysis results were found to be sufficient, whereas the confirmatory factor analysis results the fit indexes were not sufficient. In Study 2, the exploratory and con firmatory factor analysis results and criterion correlations for validity were at a very good level. The internal consistency analysis and test-retest correlations were sufficient for reliability. Conclusion: The 40-item form of BVAQ, and developed the first time the Turkish short form is a valid and reliable scale that can be used in our country. However, it has been obtained that the short form provides statistically better results. In addition, strong correlations with TAS-20 are important in terms of demonstrating that BVAQ can be used to evaluate alexithymia, such as TAS-20.