Emotion Ideology Mediates Effects Of Risk Factors On Alexithymia Development

Keywords

Alexithymia; Beliefs about emotion; Child abuse; Emotion ideology; Emotion socialization; Trauma

Abstract

Despite its connection to mental and behavioral health complications, elevated alexithymia tends to be associated with low responsiveness and high resistance to psychological intervention. To further understanding of potential treatment targets for clients with alexithymic traits, the present study explored the (a) independent contributions of various risk factors to statistical predictions of alexithymic trait severity, (b) generalizability of risk factor contributions across two culturally distinct samples, and (c) potential for emotion ideology (i.e., beliefs about emotion and emotional experience) to mediate such contributions. Preliminary results suggest emotion socialization and child abuse may be salient contributors to alexithymia severity, whereas effects of trauma exposure may be limited to samples with high overall exposure to alexithymia risk-factors. Moreover, emotion ideology mediates the relation between risk-factor exposure and alexithymia severity. Thus, psychotherapeutic interventions targeting emotion ideology may be beneficial when working with clients with elevated alexithymia.

Publication Date

9-1-2017

Publication Title

Journal of Rational - Emotive and Cognitive - Behavior Therapy

Volume

35

Issue

3

Number of Pages

254-277

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10942-016-0254-y

Socpus ID

84989208593 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84989208593

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