Family Factors Related to Alexithymia Characteristics

Abstract

There is little empirical research on the familial and parental correlates of alexithymia. A two-part study explored how the affective and cognitive characteristics of alexithymia are related to family dysfunction and maternal alexithymia. In Part I, 127 young adults were evaluated for alexithymia with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20), for impaired imagination with the Scored Archetypal Test with Nine Elements, and for family dysfunction with the McMaster Family Assessment Device. In Part II, 80 of their mothers completed the TAS-20 about themselves, and maternal alexithymia characteristics were correlated with those of their offspring. In Part I, general family pathology was associated with alexithymia. In particular, difficulty identifying feelings was related to dysfunctional family affective involvement, externally oriented thinking was related to deficient family behavior control, and impaired imagination was related to inadequate family problem solving; these relationships were independent of general family pathology and subjects' positive and negative affect. In Part II, maternal alexithymia characteristics were correlated significantly with the offsprings', controlling for both respondents' positive and negative affect. These findings implicate disturbed family functioning and maternal alexithymia in the development of alexithymia characteristics in children.

Perceived Parental Attitude, Alexithymia and Defense Style in Psychiatric Outpatients

“…Our study results cannot be compared directly to those of Berenbaum and James [14] and Lumley et al [15] because they used other research instruments that measure somewhat different aspects of parental attitude. Contrary to our expectations, perceived parental attitude was not very predictive of alexithymia or defense style.…”

“…To our knowledge only two empirical studies [14, 15] have been conducted on the association between childhood antecedents and alexithymia. Both studies were carried out on student populations using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS).…”

“…Berenbaum and James [14] found that a perceived lack of expressed approval in the family of origin and, to a lesser degree, having felt emotionally unsafe, were associated with alexithymia, especially with the dimension ‘difficulty in identifying feelings’. In the study by Lumley et al [15] characteristics of the family of origin appeared to be associated with alexithymia in distinct ways. In males, perceived emotional under- or overinvolvement was associated with the alexithymia dimensions ‘difficulties in identifying and describing feelings’, while in females, a perceived lack of family rules or guidelines and poor problem-solving was associated with the alexithymia dimension ‘externally oriented thinking’.…”

A Twin Study of Alexithymia

“…However, their sample of 15 monozygotic (MZ) and 18 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs was somewhat small, and they measured alexithymia using a brief, nonvalidated interview. Lumley et al [12]found a positive correlation between mothers’ alexithymia scores and those of their college-age children, though such results could be the result of either genetic factors or shared environmental factors. One reason to expect that alexithymia would be influenced by genetic factors is that alexithymia is associated with several characteristics, such as neuroticism, extraversion, and depression [e.g., 7, 13, 14], that have themselves been found to be genetically influenced.…”

Factors Associated with Alexithymia in Patients Suffering from Depression

“…In the general population, alexithymia has been found to be associated with low socioeconomic status, living alone with a lack of social relationships [13], as well as poor social skills [14]and a low level of education [15]. In addition, the development of alexithymia is thought to be connected with disturbances in the emotional atmosphere of the family during childhood [16]. Similar findings have also been found in alexithymic psychiatric patients [5, 7, 17]and other psychiatric patients [17, 18].…”