Social situation of expectant mothers and alexithymia 31 years later in their offspring: a prospective study.
OBJECTIVE
We studied the association between alexithymia in adulthood and social situation of the child's family at the time of the child's birth.


METHODS
The study forms part of the prospective Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort Project. The original material consisted of all 12,058 live-born children in the provinces of Lapland and Oulu in Finland with an expected delivery date during 1966. The material represents 96% of all births in the region. In 1997 a 31-year follow-up study was made on part of the initial sample. The 20-item version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) was given to 5983 participants of the field study. Of them, 85% returned the questionnaire properly completed. Factors indicative of the social situation of the child's family were already gathered during pregnancy and the time of birth from the mothers, thus eliminating recall bias.


RESULTS
Alexithymia was more common in subjects from rural than urban dwelling areas. Unwanted children or subjects born into families with many children also exhibited an association with alexithymia in adulthood.


CONCLUSIONS
Maternal social situation and environment predict alexithymia in the offspring.
Joukamaa
Matti
M
Department of Social Psychiatry, Tampere School of Public Health, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland. matti.joukamaa@uta.fi
Kokkonen
Pirkko
P
Veijola
Juha
J
Läksy
Kristian
K
Karvonen
Juha T
JT
Jokelainen
Jari
J
Järvelin
Marjo-Riitta
MR
D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002676:Child, Unwanted; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003710:Demography; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007224:Infant Care; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D011247:Pregnancy; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012424:Rural Population; D012923:Social Class; D014505:Urban Population