Developing the alexithymia scale for emerging adults and examining alexithymia in terms of various variables

In this study, it was aimed to develop a valid and reliable scale measuring the alexithymia levels of emerging adults and to examine the alexithymia levels with various variables. For this purpose, the draft scale created for the first stage of the scale development study was applied to 391 volunteer participants between the ages of 18-25 in Turkey. For the second stage, the 28-item final form, TAS-20 scale and personal information form were applied to 201 volunteer participants between the ages of 18-25 in Turkey with simple random sampling method. In the validity study of the scale, content validity, construct validity and criterion-related validity were examined. In the content validity part, the literature was examined and expert opinion was consulted. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were performed for construct validity. For criterion-related validity, the correlation between the scores obtained from the TAS-20 scale and the scores obtained from the developed scale was examined. The Cronbach alpha coefficient and the correlation coefficient obtained by the half-way method of the test were examined for the reliability study of the scale. Independent groups t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used in the analysis of the data in terms of various variables. In the analysis of the obtained data, SPSS 24.0 package program and LISREL 8.7 package program were used. The significance level was taken as .05 when interpreting of the findings. As a result of the analysis, a scale consisting of 28 items and 3 sub-dimensions was obtained. The total item correlations of the developed scale range between .46 and .73, also the total variance explained by the three sub-dimensions is 61%. In the confirmatory factor analysis conducted at the second stage, it was found that the factor loads varied between .60 and .94. In order to test the criterion-related validity, the correlation between the TAS-20 scale and the developed scale was calculated and it was determined to be at a sufficient level as 0.68. The Cronbach alpha value found for the reliability analysis of the scale is .91. In addition, the reliability coefficients according to the sub-dimensions it was found .93 in the dimension of difficulty in dream and imagination, difficulty in expressing emotions .92, and in the dimension of difficulty in recognizing and distinguishing emotions .90. The correlation coefficient between odd and even items with the split-half method is .88. It was concluded that there was a significant difference between the total alexithymia scores of emerging adults and the number of siblings and perceived economic status. In addition, it was concluded that there was a significant difference in the sub-dimension of father's education level and difficulty in verbalizing feelings, and in the dimension of difficulty in distinguishing between parents' relationship status and feelings. There is no significant difference between the variables of gender, age, birth order, mother's education level and the place where most of life is spent, and the alexithymia levels of emerging adults.