Stability of alexithymia and its relationships with the 'big five' factors, temperament, character, and attachment style.
BACKGROUND
Controversy still exists concerning the stability of the alexithymia construct. Also, although alexithymia has been found to be related in a theoretically meaningful way to other personality constructs such as the 'Big Five' factors, few studies have investigated its relationship with influential constructs such as temperament and character, and attachment security.


METHODS
Two hundred twenty-one undergraduate and graduate students were administered the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the Zung Depression Scale (ZDS), the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-125), the Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ), and the Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) questionnaire. After 1 month, 115 participants completed again the TAS-20, STAI, and ZDS.


RESULTS
Alexithymia was only moderately correlated with depression and anxiety. Both the absolute and relative stability of TAS-20 total and subscale scores was high, and a negligible portion of their change over time was accounted for by changes in depression or anxiety. In separate multiple regression models including also gender, age, depression and anxiety, TAS-20 total and subscale scores were correlated with low energy/extraversion, low emotional stability, openness, low friendliness/agreeableness; harm avoidance, low self-directedness, low cooperativeness, low reward dependence; attachment-related avoidance and anxiety.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings lend support for both absolute and relative stability of alexithymia, corroborate an association between alexithymia and insecure attachment, and contribute to a coherent placing of alexithymia in the broader theoretical network of personality constructs.
Picardi
Angelo
A
Center of Epidemiology and Health Surveillance and Promotion, Italian National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy. picardi@iss.it
Toni
Alessandro
A
Caroppo
Emanuele
E
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000523:psychology*; D001007:Anxiety; D015897:Comorbidity; D003863:Depression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D013694:Temperament