title: The relationship between perceived parenting, adult attachment style and alexithymia in alcoholic inpatients.
abstract: In this paper we examine the understudied relationship between alexithymia on the one hand, and adult attachment and perceived parenting on the other hand, in a clinical sample of alcoholic inpatients (N=101). We test whether differences between a high and a low scoring group on trait alexithymia can be predicted on the basis of attachment style and perceived parenting. We observed that the avoidant attachment style is a strong predictor. Subsequently we test whether three dimensions of alexithymia - affective, cognitive and social - are meaningfully linked to adult attachment and perceived parenting. We noticed that cognitive alexithymia especially was predicted by the avoidant attachment style and a lack of warmth perceived in the relationship to the father.
authors.affiliation: Ghent University, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Rick
authors.forename: Stijn
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vanheule
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology*; D001530:Belgium; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D009769:Object Attachment; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*