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

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An Erratum to this article was published on 01 September 2011

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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, Western Michigan University, 1903 W. Michigan Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI, 49008-5354, USA

    Ineke F. Way, Brooks Applegate, Paul Yelsma & Yvette Hyter

  2. Human Resources Research Organization, USA

    Xiaofan Cai

  3. Virginia Commonwealth University, USA

    Leslie Kimball Franck

  4. Southwest Michigan Children’s Trauma Assessment Center, USA

    Connie Black-Pond

  5. Kalamazoo County Head Start, USA

    Essence Roberts

  6. Lutheran Social Services, USA

    Mary Muliett

Authors
  1. Ineke F. Way
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  2. Brooks Applegate
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  3. Xiaofan Cai
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  4. Leslie Kimball Franck
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  5. Connie Black-Pond
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  6. Paul Yelsma
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  7. Essence Roberts
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  8. Yvette Hyter
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  9. Mary Muliett
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ineke F. Way.

Additional information

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.

An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19361521.2011.609772.

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Way, I.F., Applegate, B., Cai, X. et al. Children’s Alexithymia Measure (CAM): A New Instrument for Screening Difficulties with Emotional Expression. Journ Child Adol Trauma 3, 303–318 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1080/19361521.2010.523778

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