Psychometric properties of the Finnish 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale

The aim of this study was to examine the factor structure and the validity of the Finnish version of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). A s part of the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort Project, the TAS-20 was pr esented to a sample of 5034 31-year old persons. A confirmatory factor anal ysis showed that the three-factor model, earlier established with the origi nal TAS-20, was in agreement with the Finnish version of the scale. Three c riteria of goodness-of-fit met the standards for adequacy of fit. For the t otal scale, internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha) was 0.83 and for the th ree subscales (factors 1, 2, and 3) it was 0.81, 0.77, and 0.66, respective ly. Two- and one-factor models for TAS-20 were also examined, but the other models did not perform as well as the three-factor model. The factor model also worked well with a sample of 516 students with a mean age of 24.8 yea rs. In conclusion, the TAS-20 scale is useful in the Finnish version, too.