Loneliness, Interpersonal Distrust, and Alexithymia in University Students¹

Abstract

Loneliness has been linked to emotional knowledge and interpersonal distrust, but it is unknown whether it is mediated or moderated by these variables. Using self‐report measures, the relationship between loneliness, interpersonal distrust, and alexithymia was investigated in undergraduate students (N = 224). Analyses showed a direct relationship between alexithymia and social, family, and romantic loneliness. We also found that interpersonal distrust partly mediates this relationship, and that alexithymia and interpersonal distrust interacted to predict social and family loneliness. These findings suggest that links between the different facets of alexithymia, interpersonal distrust, and loneliness are complex and multifaceted, and they are discussed with regard to interventions for young adults.

Resilience, alexithymia, and university stress in relation to anxiety and problematic alcohol use among female university students

“…Furthermore, high levels of alexithymia have been reported in clients diagnosed with various conditions involving emotional dysregulation, including anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders (Gilbert, McEwan, Catarino, Baiao, & Palmeira, 2014;Lyvers, Hanigan, & Thorberg, 2018;Thorberg, Young, Sullivan, & Lyvers, 2009), and evidence for stability has been more mixed in such samples (e.g., de Haan, van der Palen, Wijdeveld, Buitelaar, & De Jong, 2014;Morie, Nich, Hunkele, Potenza, & Carroll, 2015;Thorberg et al, 2016). Furthermore, although social support also contributes to resilience (Li, 2008;Williams et al, 2010;Yoon et al, 2014), highly alexithymic individuals may be unlikely to rely on social support as a coping strategy when under stress given their reported interpersonal difficulties (Corbin, Farmer, & Nolen-Hoekesma, 2013;Hamaideh, 2017;Spitzer, Siebel-Jurges, Barnow, Grabe, & Freyberger, 2005); alexithymia has been associated with interpersonal distrust as well as loneliness in social, romantic and familial domains (Qualter, Quinton, Wagner, & Brown, 2009). Given that resilience requires the ability to effectively self-regulate emotions, alexithymia might be expected to show a negative relationship to resilience.…”

Interpersonal Problems and Cognitive Characteristics of Interpersonal Representations in Alexithymia

“…Apart from the link between alexithymia and cold interpersonal functioning, it is unclear as to whether associations with other interpersonal characteristics are robust. Furthermore, recent studies show that alexithymia is related to dissatisfaction in intimate relations and to social, family and romantic loneliness, partly mediated by interpersonal distrust (Humphreys et al, 2009;Qualter et al, 2009).…”

Emotion understanding, interpersonal competencies and loneliness among students

“…It can be assumed that potential correlation could appear only among people with significant deficits in emotional abilities. Although this assumption requires exhaustive research, it is partly supported by the work of Qualter, Quinton, Wagner & Brown (2009), which showed that alexithymia is positively correlated with loneliness. Lack of significant correlations between emotion understanding and loneliness could also be caused by confounding variables which are responsible for the different functioning of emotion understanding.…”