The role of alexithymia in the mental health problems of home-quarantined university students during the COVID-19 pandemic in China

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110131Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

While it is well known that mental health problems are common consequences of deadly pandemics, the association with alexithymia is less clear. This study examined this association in an evaluation of home-quarantined university students during the 2019/2020 COVID-19 pandemic in China.

Methods

In total, 2501 home-quarantined students from six southwest Chinese universities completed the following questionnaires: the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Civilian Version (PCLsingle bondC), and the Patients Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), after which structural equation modeling (SEM) and mediation analyses were employed to extract and evaluate the possible associations.

Results

It was found that participants with probable depression or PTSD also reported more severe alexithymia features, such as difficulties in identifying feelings (DIF) or describing feelings (DDF). Alexithymia was also found to partially mediate the effect of number of exposures on mental health problems.

Conclusion

These results suggested that implementing strategies to assist young people identify and deal with their own emotions and those of others could prevent or mitigate the mental health problems associated with deadly pandemic events. However, future longitudinal studies are needed to examine the specific involvement of DIF or DDF in people with mental health problems.

Keywords

Alexithymia
Depression
PTSD
Undergraduate
COVID-19

Cited by (0)

View Abstract