title: Metacognition Beliefs and General Health in Predicting Alexithymia in Students.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study was conducted to investigate the role of metacognition beliefs and general health in alexithymia in Iranian students.
  
  
  METHODS
  This descriptive and correlational study included 200 participants of high schools students, selected randomly from students of two cities (Sari and Dargaz), Iran. Metacognitive Strategies Questionnaire (MCQ-30); the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and Farsi Version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) were used for gathering the data. Using the Pearson's correlation method and regression, the data were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The findings indicated significant positive relationships between alexithymia and all subscales of general health. The highest correlation was between alexithymia and anxiety subscale (r=0.36, P<0.01). Also, there was a significant negative relationship between alexithymia and some metacognitive strategies. The highest significant negative relationship was seen between alexithymia and the sub-scale of risk uncontrollability (r=-0.359, P < 0.01). Based on the results of multiple regressions, three predictors explained 21% of the variance (R2=0. 21, F=7.238, P<0.01). It was found that anxiety subscale of General Health significantly predicted 13% of the variance of alexithymia (β=0.36, P<0.01) and risk uncontrollability subscale of Metacognition beliefs predicted about 8% of the variance of alexithymia (β=-0.028, P<0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings demonstrated that metacognition beliefs and general health had important role in predicting of alexithymia in students.
authors.affiliation: Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, IR Iran.. smnhbabaei3@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Samaneh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Babaei
authors.forename: Shahryar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ranjbar Varandi
authors.forename: Zohre
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hatami
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gharechahi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008297:Male; D000067489:Metacognition; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires