Objective: Alexithymia is a personality trait that reflects deficits in the cognitive processing and regulation of emotions (Taylor & Bagby, 2013). It has been closely linked to childhood trauma and reported by individuals presenting with other trauma-related conditions, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), dissociation, and interpersonal problems (Powers, Etkin, Gyurak, Bradley, & Jovanovic, 2015). Addressing the emotional deficits associated with alexithymia is fundamental to resolving issues of childhood trauma and, therefore, is at the core of many trauma therapy models (e.g., Cloitre, Koenen, Cohen, & Han, 2002). The current study aims to build upon this foundation by examining the role of alexithymia in the improvements of trauma-specific difficulties prior to and following trauma therapy among treatment-seeking women with histories of childhood abuse. Method: Data were collected from 167 participants attending Women Recovering from Abuse Program (WRAP), an 8-week, Stage I, day treatment program using primarily group therapy for women with histories of severe childhood trauma. Participants’ level of alexithymia, PTSD, and dissociative symptoms, and interpersonal difficulties were assessed at three time points. Results: Significant positive relationships were found between improvements in alexithymia and improvements on all trauma-specific outcomes over the course of treatment (e.g., baseline to posttreatment) and between distinct stages of WRAP. Conclusions: These findings underscore the role of alexithymia in trauma therapy, and the need to properly attend to the deficits and issues related to alexithymia at initial stages of therapy with survivors of childhood abuse in order to facilitate improvements in trauma-specific symptoms.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a myriad of stressors, underscoring the relevance of adjustment disorder during these extraordinary times. Boredom—as a feeling and as a dispositional characteristic—is an equally pertinent experience during the pandemic that has been cross-sectionally linked to various mental health difficulties. The current longitudinal study expanded on this work, examining the associations between adjustment disorder symptoms and boredom (both as a feeling and as a trait) over time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Community participants completed questionnaires three times, rating their trait boredom at Time 1 and their feelings of boredom and adjustment disorder symptoms (preoccupation with a pandemic stressor and failure to adapt) over the past week at Times 1–3. Latent growth curve analyses found that an increase in feelings of boredom was significantly associated with increased preoccupation with a pandemic stressor and increased difficulties with adapting over time. Additionally, trait boredom significantly predicted changes in preoccupation and the failure to adapt, such that participants high in trait boredom increasingly struggled with these symptoms over time. Our results suggest that increased feelings of boredom and a trait disposition towards boredom can be detrimental to people’s ability to adjust over time to the stressors associated with the pandemic. Boredom, as an aversive state and as a chronic difficulty, may be important to address in treatment approaches for adjustment disorder symptoms during COVID-19.

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Research during the COVID-19 pandemic and prior outbreaks suggest that boredom is linked to poor compliance with critical lifesaving social distancing and quarantine guidelines, as well as to numerous mental health difficulties. As such, continued understanding on what contributes to boredom is imperative. Extending beyond the roles of constraint, monotony, and trait dispositions (e.g., individual differences in boredom propensity), and informed by prior theories on the emotional contributors of boredom, the current longitudinal study examined the predictive role of “pandemic trauma” on people’s boredom, with a focus on how emotion dysregulation mediates this relationship. Community participants (N = 345) completed questionnaires three times across an average of 3 1/2 weeks, rating their pandemic trauma, emotion dysregulation, and boredom over the past week each time. Pandemic trauma was assessed with items querying exposure to coronavirus, as well as the financial, resource-related, and interpersonal pandemic stressors that participants experienced. Emotion dysregulation was assessed with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Boredom was assessed with the short-form Multidimensional State Boredom Scale. The results of a theory-informed mediation model showed that participants’ pandemic trauma at Time 1 positively and modestly predicted their boredom at Time 3 and that this relationship was partially and moderately mediated by participants’ lack of emotional clarity and difficulties with engaging in goal-directed behaviors at Time 2. When people experience pandemic-related trauma, they subsequently struggle to understand their feelings and engage in goal-oriented actions, and, in turn, feel more bored. Theoretical and clinical implications as related to the emotional underpinnings of boredom are discussed.

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