Validation of the French version of the Children's Alexithymia Measure

Abstract

Objectives: Alexithymia is a risk factor associated with a wide array of mental health issues and has been linked to a history of trauma including child sexual abuse. Yet, few measures evaluating alexithymia in children have been validated. This study aimed to explore the psychometric properties of the French version of the Children's Alexithymia Measure (CAM; Way et al., 2010) in a sample of sexually abused children.

Methods: A sample of 418 non-offending caregivers of sexually abused children aged 6 to 12 completed the Children's Alexithymia Measure. They were also invited to complete a series of questionnaires used as validity indices including the Emotion Regulation Checklist, the Child Behavior Checklist and the Child Dissociative Checklist.

Results: Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported the unidimensional factor structure of the Children's Alexithymia Measure and the total score showed high internal consistency. As expected, the total score of the Children's Alexithymia Measure was positively correlated with emotion regulation difficulties. In addition, the total score of the Children's Alexithymia Measure was found to be correlated with dimensions of both internalizing and externalizing behavior problems as well as dissociative symptoms, with children displaying higher scores of alexithymia showing higher symptoms.

Conclusions: Findings provide initial support for the psychometric properties of the French version of the Children's Alexithymia Measure with a clinical sample of child victims of sexual abuse. The measure could be useful for future studies exploring the mediating role of alexithymia in the association between trauma and psychopathology. The measure could as well be a relevant tool in the clinical assessment of vulnerable children.

Keywords: Alexithymia; Children; Measure; Sexual abuse; Validation.