Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Quantitative Psychology and Measurement
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1392351
This article is part of the Research Topic Measurement in Health Psychology - Volume II View all 5 articles

Somatosensory Amplification Scale -Chinese Version: Psychometric Properties and Its Mediating Role in the Relationship Between Alexithymia and Somatization

Provisionally accepted
Yafei Tan Yafei Tan 1*Xiaoran An Xiaoran An 1Menglu Cao Menglu Cao 2Omer Van Den Bergh Omer Van Den Bergh 3
  • 1 Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China
  • 2 Southwest University, Chongqing, Chongqing Municipality, China
  • 3 KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The Somatosensory Amplification Scale (SSAS) was designed to measure individual's tendency to experience visceral and somatic sensations as unusually intense, disturbing and alarming. In this study, we aimed to investigate the reliability and validity of the SSAS in the Chinese general population, as well as the mediating effect of somatosensory amplification in the relationship between alexithymia and somatization. A total of 386 healthy adults were enrolled in this study. Participants completed the Chinese versions of the Somatosensory Amplification Scale (SSAS-C), the somatization subscale of the Symptom Check List 90 (SCL-90 som), the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and the Short form Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI). One hundred and thirty-three participants were randomly selected to complete the SSAS-C again two weeks after the initial assessment. The reliability and validity of the SSAS-C were analyzed. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the one-factor model achieved adequate model fits; one item was deleted due to low factor loading. The revised SSAS-C showed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The SSAS-C scores correlated positively with the scores of SCL-90 som, TAS-20 and the SHAI, showing good convergent validity. In addition, somatosensory amplification mediated the association between alexithymia and somatization. The Chinese version of SSAS has acceptable reliability and validity for the general population. In addition, alexithymia may increase somatization through higher somatosensory amplification.

    Keywords: Somatosensory Amplification Scale, psychometric properties, Somatization, alexithymia, Chinese version

    Received: 27 Feb 2024; Accepted: 05 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Tan, An, Cao and Van Den Bergh. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yafei Tan, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.