Adaptation of the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ) to the Brazilian context and evidence for university students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18675/1981-8106.v.36.n.71.s19079Keywords:
Translation. Validity evidence. Cultural adaptation. Alexithymia.Abstract
Alexithymia is a trait characterized by difficulties in identifying and describing feelings and by externally oriented thinking, constituting a transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathologies. The Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ) is a 24-item self-report instrument originally developed in English to provide a more comprehensive assessment of alexithymia. This study aimed to culturally adapt the PAQ to Brazilian Portuguese and to verify its preliminary psychometric parameters. The method was structured in five stages: obtaining permission for adaptation; translation of the instrument; synthesis and evaluation by experts; back-translation and evaluation by experts; pilot study. The instrument presented good evidence of content validity (k = 0.73) and internal consistency (α = 0.96). Participants in the pilot study did not report difficulties regarding to understanding the items. Data collection was then conducted with university students (n = 188) to provide initial psychometric parameters for the Brazilian version of the instrument. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) suggested a second-order model as the one that best fits the data.
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