Psychometric properties of the Emotion Awareness Questionnaire for children

Abstract

In order to broaden the alexithymia concept, we identified six aspects in a newly developed questionnaire for children which aims to measure emotion awareness: Differentiating Emotions, Verbal Sharing of Emotions, Bodily Awareness, Acting Out Emotions, Analyses of Emotions, and Others’ Emotions. First, the six-factor structure of this Emotion Awareness Questionnaire was identified in children (692 children, 9–16 years old), although the scale Acting Out Emotions showed poor psychometric properties. Second, the predictive validity of the Emotion Awareness Questionnaire showed promise with respect to self-reported somatic complaints (in samples from two different countries, the UK and the Netherlands), depression and worry. Only Acting Out Emotions did not contribute to any of the criterion variables whilst Bodily Awareness and Others’ Emotions contributed in the unexpected direction. It is proposed that the Emotion Awareness Questionnaire could help to identify which specific elements of emotional (dys)functioning are related to different kinds of psychological problems.