A Behavioral-Genetic Study of Alexithymia and its Relationships with Trait Emotional Intelligence

Abstract

The present study is the first to examine relationships between alexithymia and trait emotional intelligence (trait EI or trait emotional self-efficacy) at the phenotypic, genetic, and environmental levels. The study was also conducted to resolve inconsistencies in previous twin studies that have provided estimates of the extent to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to individual differences in alexithymia. Participants were 216 monozygotic and 45 dizygotic same-sex twin pairs who completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20. In a pilot study, a sub-sample of 118 MZ and 27 DZ pairs also completed the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire. Results demonstrated that a combination of genetic and non-shared environmental influences contribute to individual differences in alexithymia. As expected, alexithymia and trait EI were negatively correlated at the phenotypic level. Bivariate behavioral genetic analyses showed that that all but one of these correlations was primarily attributable to correlated genetic factors and secondarily to correlated non-shared environmental factors.

A Behavior Genetic Analysis of Trait Emotional Intelligence and Alexithymia: A Replication

“…These results provide a valuable replication of Baughman et al's (2011) small-sample pilot study, in which similar results were reported. The findings allow us to conclude that, although alexithymia and trait EI are distinct, they do also share common attributes.…”

“…Two recent BG studies reported similar results (Baughman et al, 2011;Picardi et al, 2011). Baughman et al (2011) further reported that the phenotypic correlations that they observed between alexithymia and trait EI were attributable to correlated genetic and correlated non-shared environmental factors.…”

“…The present study aimed to replicate the findings of Baughman et al (2011) using a larger sample of twins. Based on Baughman et al's results, it is predicted that individual differences in alexithymia will be attributable to genetic and non-shared environmental factors.…”

“…In this study, our goal was to replicate the findings of Baughman et al (2011). Specifically, we used a large twin sample to investigate the contributions of genetic and environmental factors to individual differences in alexithymia.…”

“…This could only occur, however, among DZ twins and not among MZ twins, because only DZ twins have genetically determined within-pair differences in the first place. It is possible that such an effect is operating with respect to alexithymia, and was not noted by Baughman et al (2011), given the small sample size they used. Additional research, however, should be conducted to investigate whether this is a real effect or merely an anomaly.…”