Page No. 114-122
Saba Ghayas, Sadia Niazi, Maria Ghazal and Wajeeha Tahir
University of Sargodha, Pakistan
The present study was conducted to translate and validate the Toronto Alexithymia
Scale (Taylor, Bagby & Parker, 1994) for the purpose of having a culturally equivalent,
linguistically accurate Urdu version with theoretically replicable factor structure to use
in Pakistan. The forward-backward translation method was used for translation of this
scale. Urdu translated version of the scale was applied on 300 participants of different
age groups (M= 35.5, SD= 12.1). Based on a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), results
confirmed that a three-dimensional model with the factors difficulty describing feelings,
difficulty identifying feelings and externally oriented thinking, provided an excellent fit to
the data. Its Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient was .82. The cross-language validity
determined on a sample of 60 participants showed highly satisfactory validity indices.
Convergent validity of the scale was proved by finding positive correlation of Toronto
Alexithymia Scale with anxiety (r = .51, p < .001) and negative relationship with emotional
intelligence (r = -.35, p < .001), which revealed its divergent validity