An investigation of the relationship between alexithymia and empathy tendency in university students receiving health education

PURPOSE

This study aims to identify the relationship between alexithymia and empathy tendency in university students receiving health education.

DESIGN AND METHODS

This descriptive study was conducted with the volunteer participation of 376 students at a unıversity located in the eastern part of Turkey between September and October 2019. Data were collected through the Sociodemographic Form, the Empathy Tendency Scale, and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale.

FINDINGS

The Empathy Tendency Scale was found to be significantly higher in females, in those who lived alone, who did not experience a traumatic event when they were children, whose mother was alive, and who were not subject to violence. As to the Alexithymia Scale, mean scores were significantly higher in males, in those whose mother or father was illiterate, who had a monthly family income of less than 2000₺, who graduated from a Religious Vocational High School, and whose mother was not alive (P %3C .05). A negative, significant relationship was found between the Empathy Tendency Scale mean score and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (P %3C .001).

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

A negative, significant relationship was found between empathy tendency and alexithymia. It is recommended that similar studies should be conducted in different regions as well.

Differentiation of Self and Dyadic Adjustment in Couple Relationships: A Dyadic Analysis Using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model

Bowen's multigenerational theory provides an account of how the internalization of experiences within the family of origin promotes development of the ability to maintain a distinct self whilst also making intimate connections with others. Differentiated people can maintain their I-position in intimate relationships. They can remain calm in conflictual relationships, resolve relational problems effectively, and reach compromises. Fusion with others, emotional cut-off, and emotional reactivity instead are common reactions to relational stress in undifferentiated people. Emotional reactivity is the tendency to react to stressors with irrational and intense emotional arousal. Fusion with others is an excessive emotional involvement in significant relationships, whilst emotional cut-off is the tendency to manage relationship anxiety through physical and emotional distance. This study is based on Bowen's theory, starting from the assumption that dyadic adjustment can be affected both by a member's differentiation of self (actor effect) and by his or her partner's differentiation of self (partner effect). We used the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model to study the relationship between differentiation of self and dyadic adjustment in a convenience sample of 137 heterosexual Italian couples (nonindependent, dyadic data). The couples completed the Differentiation of Self Inventory and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Men's dyadic adjustment depended only on their personal I-position, whereas women's dyadic adjustment was affected by their personal I-position and emotional cut-off as well as by their partner's I-position and emotional cut-off. The empirical and clinical implications of the results are discussed.

The Relation Between Contempt, Anger, and Intimate Partner Violence: A Dyadic Approach

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a persistent problem in our society, and there is strong evidence for the existence of bidirectional violence in heterosexual romantic relationships. Couples' research has long focused on conflict and distressed communication patterns as a source of relationship distress and eventual dissolution. In addition to relationship dissatisfaction, dysfunctional communication also appears to be associated with elevated risk of IPV. In fact, one study found that communication difficulties were one of the most frequently self-reported motivations for committing partner violence in a sample of both males and females arrested for IPV. The current study sought to explore the association between the expression of distressed communication (contempt and anger) during a laboratory conflict discussion and reports of IPV perpetration using a dyadic data analysis method, the Actor Partner Interdependence Model, in a large ethnically diverse sample of heterosexual couples. We found that negative communication in the form of contempt was not only associated with one's own physical assault perpetration, but it was also associated with physical assault perpetration of the other partner. In contrast, anger was only associated with one's own physical assault perpetration. Therefore, our results highlight the potential efficacy of treatments for IPV that target negative communication patterns and affect.

Measurement Invariance of English and French Language Versions of the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale

Abstract. The alexithymia construct is commonly measured with the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), with more than 20 different language translations. Despite replication of the factor structure, however, it cannot be assumed that observed differences in mean TAS-20 scores can be interpreted similarly across different languages and cultural groups. It is necessary to also demonstrate measurement invariance (MI) for language. The aim of this study was to evaluate MI of the English and French versions of the TAS-20 using data from 17,866 Canadian military recruits; 71% spoke English and 29% spoke French as their first language. We used confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) to establish a baseline model of the TAS-20, and four increasingly restrictive multigroup CFA analyses to evaluate configural, metric, scalar, and residual error levels of MI. The best fitting factor structure in both samples was an oblique 3-factor model with an additional method factor comprised of negatively-keyed items. MI was achieved at all four levels of invariance. There were only small differences in mean scores across the two samples. Results support MI of English and French versions of the TAS-20, allowing meaningful comparisons of findings from investigations in Canadian French-speaking and English-speaking groups.