Assessing Measurement and Predictive Invariance of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 in US Anglo and US Hispanic Student Samples

We collected data from a predominately Anglo American student sample in the Southeastern United States and a predominately Hispanic student sample in the Southwestern United States. Along with an assessment of internal consistency reliability, we examined measurement invariance of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20) using confirmatory factor analysis. We also assessed the predictive invariance of the TAS-20. Results indicate that 2 of the 3 TAS-20 subscales demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency reliability across samples. Items from the TAS-20 subscales demonstrated measurement invariance of the latent means. The relationship between 2 measures of emotional dysfunction and the TAS-20 also demonstrated slope and intercept invariance, indicating equivalent validity.