The Toronto Alexithymia Scale with incarcerated offenders

The present study examined the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) in a sample of 508 male inmates incarcerated for sexual and violent offences. A confirmatory procedure applied to the 20-item version of the TAS (TAS-20) resulted in a two-factor solution: Emotional Understanding Deficit, and Experiencing and Utilizing Emotion. The factor scale of Emotional Understanding Deficit had a strong inverse relationship with social desirability measures and a positive relationship with all dimensions of psychopathology. On a measure of intelligence, Emotional Understanding Deficit and Experiencing and Utilizing Emotion scales had the expected verbal/performance discrepancy. Unexpected negative relationships occurred between the TAS and theoretically relevant dimensions from the Hare Psychopathy Checklist—Revised. Although the results indicate limitations of the TAS-20ʹs usage with inmates, there was support for the TAS scalesʹ validity with an incarcerated sample.