SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC CORRELATES OF ALEXITHYMIA

The association between alexithymia and sociodemographic variables is not well understood. Previous studies using the current 20-item and pr evious 26-item versions of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) have sh own inconsistent associations with age, sex, socioeconomic status, and years of education. We tested 380 subjects from the community stratif ied equally across sex, five age groups, and three socioeconomic class es. In addition to the TAS-20, we also administered the Levels of Emot ional Awareness Scale (LEAS), a behavioral measure of the ability to b e aware of and represent emotions in words, a core component of alexit hymia. The TAS-20 and LEAS were each correlated with age, sex, socioec onomic status (SES), and years of education (P < .01) in the same dire ction and to approximately the same degree. Alexithymia (or low emotio nal awareness) is associated with older age, male sex, lower SES, and fewer years of education. The TAS-20 and LEAS are only slightly correl ated (r = -.19, n = 380, P < .001), but their correlation is largely a ccounted for by their shared variance with these demographic variables . The convergence of findings with these two quite different measures and the nature of their overlap support the validity of these associat ions between alexithymia and sociodemographic variables. Copyright (C) 1998 by W.B. Saunders Company.