Children's Alexithymia Measure (CAM): A New Instrument for Screening Difficulties with Emotional Expression

Abstract

This article presents initial psychometric data on a new observer-rated screening instrument, the Children's Alexithymia Measure (CAM). Alexithymia is an affective and cognitive condition characterized by difficulty recognizing and expressing feelings. An initial item set was developed following focus groups with parents and professionals. This set was reduced to 32 items and administered to 246 parents of children ages 5 to 17 with trauma histories. Factor and item response theory analyses were conducted, resulting in a 14-item instrument. The final CAM instrument showed strong internal reliability, with coefficient alpha = .92. Initial criterion-related and contrasted-groups validity were estimated using the Alexithymia Scale for Children and the Child Behavior Checklist. The CAM will be useful in screening children who have difficulties recognizing and expressing feelings.

Keywords:

• alexithymia
• children
• adolescent
• trauma
• measurement
• CAM

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Corrigendum

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA; National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative, #5 U79 SM56207). Rachel Clay Richmond, MSW, worked as Graduate Research Assistant in the first year of the project. She developed the database used for data entry. The authors also acknowledge the expert panel members who reviewed earlier versions of the Children's Alexithymia Measure: Dr. Dolores Subia Bigfoot, Dr. Julian Ford, Dr. William Friedrich, Ms. Colleen Gallagher, Dr. Kevin J. Gully, Dr. Mark G. Haviland, Dr. Alan Hovestadt, Dr. Juliet M. Vogel, and Dr. Elizabeth Thompson. A copy of the study instrument may be requested by contacting the first author.

Notes

*Posthumously; Xiaofan Cai, PhD, worked on the CAM project as a doctoral research assistant while completing her doctoral studies in educational measurement. She conducted preliminary analyses, exploratory factor analysis, and contributed to posters presented at national conferences. Her contributions were critical to the completion of this study.