Influence of alexithymic tendencies on somatic complaints of Junior high school students

Abstract

Relationships between somatic complaints and alexithymic tendencies were investigated in junior-high-school students N 1,206; 626 boys and 580 girls that completed the Somatic Complaint List SCL and the Alexithymia Scale for Adolescents ASA. Results indicated that girls had signi cantly higher total SCL scores than boys d .18 , and third-year students had signi cantly higher total SCL scores than rst-year students d .18. Moreover, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that di culty identifying feelings DIF subscale of the ASA contributed to higher SCL scores boys: β .33, p .01; girls: β .37, p .01 , and furthermore, diculty describing feelings DDF subscale played a role in increasing somatic complaints in boys β .10, p .05. Also, the DIF DDF interaction was associated with the total SCL score in girls. ese results suggest that alexithymic tendencies, especially DIF and secondarily DDF, in uence somatic complaints of junior-highschool students.

Influence of Alexithymia on Somatic Complaints among Japanese Adolescents: A survey research

“…Participants would answer anonymously so that individuals could not be identi ed or analyzed, as participation was optional. The survey form was distributed to 3,034 Japanese adolescents (aged [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]; answers that contained omissions and answers obtained from subjects who were aged 21 and over were considered invalid responses and were excluded. Thus, the nal number of valid responses was 2,766, obtained from participants aged 12-20 (626 male junior high school students, 580 female junior high school students, 620 male high school students, 714 female high school students, 124 male university students, and 102 female university students).…”

“…The American Psychological Association de nes adolescence as the period of human development that starts with puberty (10-12 years of age) and ends with physiological maturity (approximately 19 years of age), although the exact age span varies across individuals [9]. In addition, Blos [10] classi es adolescence into early adolescence (age [12][13][14][15], mid-adolescence (age [15][16][17][18], and late adolescence (age 18-20) [11]. This classi cation is re ected in the education system of Japan [11].…”

“…There are fewer studies on adolescent alexithymia than those on adulthood. However, previous studies focusing on adolescence have reported signi cant correlations between alexithymic tendencies and somatic complaints [15][16][17], such as adolescents with suspected irritable bowel syndrome were identi ed with signi cantly higher level of alexithymic tendencies [18], and that alexithymic tendencies had a signi cant positive correlation with depression [19][20][21].…”

“…In Finnish youths (aged 12 to 17), alexithymia scores decreased from early to mid-adolescence [25]. Canadian youths (aged [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] showed no signi cant difference in alexithymia scores between the ages of 13 and 18, yet showed a signi cant decrease when participants were aged 19 or older [24]. The study considers decreasing alexithymia scores to be due to emotional consciousness naturally increasing with age, as proposed in alexithymia developmental theory [29,30].…”