Alexithymia, state‐emotion dysregulation, and eating disorder symptoms: A mediation model

Abstract

Background

There were three objectives in this study. The first was to investigate if deficits in understanding and identifying emotions (i.e., alexithymia) would lead to further difficulties with emotion regulation and subsequently symptoms of an eating disorder. The second purpose was to determine which emotion regulation deficits are most relevant for individuals high in alexithymia who report eating disorder symptoms. The third purpose of this study was to utilise a mood‐induction task and state measures of emotion regulation to more closely approximate the conditions that would call for emotion regulation in real‐life.

Methods

We recruited a sample size of 151 undergraduate psychology students at a large Midwestern university. Participants completed self‐report questionnaires that measured alexithymia, eating disorder symptomology, state‐affect, and state‐emotion regulation. The state measures were completed immediately before and after engaging in a task designed to provoke a negative mood state, the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task‐Computerised version.

Results

In the context of state difficulties in emotion regulation immediately following the mood induction, state‐modulate mediated the relationship between alexithymia and eating disorder symptoms while state nonacceptance did not.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that individuals high in alexithymia may experience a limited ability to modulate their emotions in stressful moments which may put them at a greater risk for developing eating disorder symptoms. The ability to identify emotions may be a pre‐requisite skill for developing a wider range of emotion regulation strategies.

Key words:

• alexithymia
• eating disorders
• modulate
• mood induction task
• nonacceptance
• state‐emotion regulation

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not‐for‐profit sectors.