Alexithymia is implicated in eating disorder phenomenology. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20) is a commonly used measure of alexithymia, which has been used to investigate associations between alexithymia and eating disorders. However, the TAS-20 has never been validated among individuals across the eating disorder spectrum. The purpose of this study was to test the factor structure and psychometric properties of the TAS-20 in a sample of patients with eating disorders. Participants were 710 patients admitted to a partial hospitalization program for eating disorder treatment. Participants completed self-report instruments at admit and one-month into treatment. Analyses tested the three-factor structure of the TAS-20 using confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and measurement invariance across eating disorder diagnosis. Next, analyses tested the psychometric properties (i.e., convergent validity, internal consistency and test-retest reliability) of this model. CFA determined that the original three-factor structure of the TAS-20 fit the data after removal of five items in the Externally Oriented Thinking factor. This structure was invariant across diagnoses. The TAS-20 showed strong test-retest reliability, good internal consistency (excluding Externally Oriented Thinking), and moderate convergent validity. This structure of the TAS-20 may be more appropriate to use in future clinical work and research among those with eating disorders.
The aim of this study was to develop and validate the S.T.O.R.M.Y. (Severity of Temper Outbursts, Regulation difficulties, and Mood irritability in Youth), a brief questionnaire mapping onto DSM-5 criteria for Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD). Participants included 139 children (67
The Life Problems Inventory (LPI) is a widely adopted measure of symptomatology and emotion regulation skills related to borderline personality disorder (BPD) for clinical and general youth groups based on Linehan’s DBT framework. The Revised-LPI (R-LPI) was designed to advance the utility and scope of LPI by integrating the 5th central problem domain identified in DBT for adolescents and emerging adults (DBT-A), Teen Family Conflict. This study evaluated the application of the R-LPI to a general population of 844 undergraduate students (62.09
The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is increasingly used to assess psychological functioning in youth with serious problem behaviors, although evidence regarding its psychometric properties in this population remains limited. This study examined the relevance, validity, and reliability of the SDQ, as well as changes in SDQ scores during treatment, among Norwegian youths assigned to Multisystemic Therapy (MST) between 2021 and 2024. The study included data from 1740 youths (60.1
