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Table 1 Demographics for autistic and general population samples

From: Improving the measurement of alexithymia in autistic adults: a psychometric investigation of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale and generation of a general alexithymia factor score using item response theory

 

SPARK (n = 743)

HPP (n = 721)

Age (years)

30.91 (7.02)

30.92 (13.01)

Sex

  

 Male

271 (36.5%)

253 (35.1%)

 Female

472 (63.5%)

468 (64.9%)

Gender identity

  

 Cisgender man

245 (33.0%)

 Cisgender woman

400 (53.8%)

 Transgender man

15 (2.0%)

 Transgender woman

6 (0.8%)

 Non-binary

76 (10.2%)

Non-Hispanic White

590 (79.4%)

Education

  

 No high school diploma

25 (3.4%)

 High school diploma/GED

140 (18.8%)

 Vocational certificate

36 (4.8%)

 Some college

197 (26.5%)

 Associate degree

74 (10.0%)

 Bachelor’s degree

171 (23.0%)

 Graduate/professional degree

100 (13.5%)

Age of autism diagnosis (years)

19.67 (11.17)

Current depression

440 (59.2%)

Current anxiety

533 (71.7%)

Current suicidality

292 (39.3%)

Lifetime ADHD

342 (46.0%)

TAS-20 total score

60.55 (13.11)

50.21 (11.21)a

TAS-20 total score (prorated)b

61.26 (14.17)

51.38 (10.92)

GAFS-8 latent trait score

1.01 (1.17)

0.01 (0.93)

 “High alexithymia” (TAS-20 ≥ 61)

405 (54.5%)

123 (17.1%)a

  1. Continuous variables are presented as M (SD), and categorical variables are presented as N (%). All data in both samples were gathered by self-report
  2. SPARK Simons Powering Autism Research Knowledge, HPP Human Penguin Project, ADHD attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, TAS Toronto Alexithymia Scale, GAFS-8 8-item General Alexithymia Factor Score
  3. aParticipants in the HPP sample completed 16 items of the TAS-20, which excluded items 16, 17, 18, and 20. For comparison with the TAS-20 scores in the SPARK sample, these four items were imputed for all HPP participants using random forest imputation
  4. bCalculated as mean of all 16 non-missing TAS-20 items multiplied by 20, for comparison with TAS-20 scores