In plain language
Some people struggle to identify and describe what they are feeling — a trait psychologists call alexithymia, literally "no words for feelings." In adults, alexithymia is linked to a wide range of problems, from poor emotion regulation to substance abuse and interpersonal difficulties. But almost no research had checked whether teenagers can meaningfully report on this trait, or whether their answers simply reflect low self-esteem or low hope rather than a genuinely distinct difficulty with emotions.
The researchers gave 796 Grade 8 students (around age 13) from the Wollongong Youth Study a brief 12-item alexithymia scale drawn from the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, along with measures of self-esteem, trait hope, emotions, and social support. Teachers also rated each student's emotional and behavioral adjustment. Factor analyses showed the 12 items formed a single coherent, highly reliable scale, and that adolescents clearly distinguished alexithymia from self-esteem, hope, and their positive and negative emotional states — they were not confusing being unable to name feelings with simply feeling bad about themselves.
Alexithymic teenagers reported having both fewer sources of social support and less satisfying support, more sadness, hostility, and fear, and less cheerfulness — even after accounting for self-esteem and hope. Strikingly, teachers largely failed to notice these difficulties: teacher ratings of problems were essentially unrelated to alexithymia once other traits were controlled. This suggests brief self-report screening can detect emotional difficulties in young people that remain hidden from the adults around them.
Key findings
- A 12-item alexithymia measure (difficulty identifying and describing feelings, from the TAS-20) formed a single coherent factor with excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .87) in 796 Grade 8 students.
- Factor analyses showed adolescents clearly distinguish alexithymia from self-esteem and trait hope — the three constructs loaded on separate factors.
- Alexithymia was also distinct from emotional states: alexithymia items did not load on factors for sadness, fear, hostility, or joviality.
- Alexithymia was associated with lower quantity and quality of social support, and these links held even after controlling for self-esteem and trait hope.
- Alexithymic adolescents reported more sadness, hostility, and fear and less joviality; alexithymia explained 18.5% of the variance in hostility.
- Teacher ratings of student problems were essentially unrelated to alexithymia after controls, indicating these difficulties go largely unnoticed by adults and underscoring the value of self-report screening at age 13.
How to cite
APA
Heaven, P. C. L., Ciarrochi, J., & Hurrell, K. (2010). The distinctiveness and utility of a brief measure of alexithymia for adolescents. Personality and Individual Differences, 49, 222–227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.03.039
BibTeX
@article{heaven2010distinctiveness,
title = {The distinctiveness and utility of a brief measure of alexithymia for adolescents},
author = {Heaven, Patrick C. L. and Ciarrochi, Joseph and Hurrell, Katherine},
journal = {Personality and Individual Differences},
volume = {49},
pages = {222--227},
year = {2010},
doi = {10.1016/j.paid.2010.03.039}
}
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Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.