Emotion Dysregulation and Alexithymia within Marital Burnout through an Emotion-Focused Therapy Lens

Abstract

The literature discusses that alexithymia can predict and increase marital burnout, one of the main reasons couples seek support and may get divorced. Given the well-established relationship between attachment styles and alexithymia, the inability to describe one’s emotion, the mediating role of emotion dysregulation is investigated by a structural equation modeling. Of 396 individuals attending five psychiatric clinics that provides therapy and pre-divorce consultation for couples, 219 married individuals analogous to diagnosed alexithymia met the inclusion criteria and are included in the study. The study’s model shows a good fit and demonstrates that emotion dysregulation partially mediates the relationship between attachment style and alexithymia, which explains a high variance in alexithymia (R² = 0.86). The results suggest that emotion dysregulation, regardless of attachment style, underlies alexithymia among individuals with marital burnout. The findings are discussed through an emotion-focused therapy lens and clinically implied cautions are provided.

Keywords:

• Marital burnout
• Divorce
• Emotion dysregulation
• Alexithymia
• Attachment styles

Acknowledgments

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

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).