[Diagnosis of alexithymia in the workplace: definition and validation of an instrument]

The aim of this study is to provide, to develop and validate, a new instrument for measuring alexithymia in the workplace. To develop and validate the MAQ in the Italian population, verifying its psychometric properties, we involved 585 participants, ranged from 16 to 33 of age, divided by gender and level of schooling. All participants completed MAQ which contained 108 items, and then Principal Components Analysis with Oblimin rotation was elaborated to understand latent structure of alexithymia. The study showed Alexithymia is composed by five dimensions: (1) difficulty to communicate, (2) to identify emotions, (3) and to manage time such as a coping style, (4) diffident attachment, (5) and pragmatic way to think. The psychometric properties of MAQ and internal consistency were demonstrated to be robust. Reliability analysis by Alpha was significant. Hence, MAQ could be useful in evaluating of the main traits involved in Alexithymia.