Alexithymia behaves as a personality trait over a 5-year period in Finnish general population.
OBJECTIVE
Temporal stability is a basic assumption underlying any personality trait construct. Previous research on the stability of alexithymia has led to a controversy over whether alexithymia should be viewed as a state-dependent phenomenon or as a stable personality trait. The aim of this 5-year longitudinal study was to examine the temporal stability of alexithymia in the general population in Finland.


METHODS
Alexithymia was measured with the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) at the baseline and 5 years later.


RESULTS
The test-retest correlations of the TAS-20 total and factor-specific scores at the baseline and at the 5-year follow-up ranged from moderate to high in both genders, reflecting a rather high relative stability of the TAS-20 scores over a period of 5 years.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings of our study suggest that alexithymia behaves like a stable personality trait in the general population.
Salminen
J K
JK
Laboratory for Population Research, Department of Health and Functional Capacity, National Public Health Institute, Turku, Finland. jouko.salminen@ktl.fi
Saarijärvi
S
S
Toikka
T
T
Kauhanen
J
J
Aärelä
E
E
D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008875:Middle Aged; D009790:Occupations; D010551:Personality; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors