Prevalence of alexithymia among college-aged undergraduate students: Differences by selected demographic factors
Abstrakt
The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of alexithymia among undergraduate students, with a focus on selected demographic differences. The study adopted a cross-sectional research design. A total of 678 undergraduate students (302 male and 376 female participants), selected through non-proportional stratified sampling, participated in the study. Data were collected using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (α = .81). Descriptive statistics, including frequency counts, means, and standard deviations, and inferential statistics, including the independent-samples t-test, analysis of variance, and univariate general linear model (GLM), were used for data analysis. The findings indicated a high level and a substantial proportion of participants exceeding the established cut-off for alexithymia. Gender, age group, and academic level jointly explained 10.3% of the variance in alexithymia scores. After adjusting for the number of predictors in the model, the explained variance was 9.5%. Furthermore, female participants reported significantly higher levels of alexithymia than male participants. Significant differences in alexithymia scores were also observed across age groups, although the effect size was small. A statistically significant difference with a moderate effect size was found in alexithymia scores across academic levels, with 300-level students recording the highest mean score. The findings were discussed, and it was recommended that psychotherapeutic interventions aimed at supporting students with difficulties in emotional awareness and strengthening emotional competencies among vulnerable students be implemented by university authorities.
https://doi.org/10.29364/epsy.561
(Článek je v anglickém jazyce)
Klíčová slova
alexithymie, obtíže při rozpoznávání pocitů, obtíže při popisování pocitů, externě orientované myšleníLiteratura
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