Alexithymia behaves as a personality trait over a 5-year period in Finnish general population
Abstract
Objective Temporal stability is a basic assumption underlying any personality trait construct. Previous research on the stability of alexithymia has led to a controversy over whether alexithymia should be viewed as a state-dependent phenomenon or as a stable personality trait. The aim of this 5-year longitudinal study was to examine the temporal stability of alexithymia in the general population in Finland.Methods Alexithymia was measured with the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) at the baseline and 5 years later.Results The test-retest correlations of the TAS-20 total and factor-specific scores at the baseline and at the 5-year follow-up ranged from moderate to high in both genders, reflecting a rather high relative stability of the TAS-20 scores over a period of 5 years.Conclusions The findings of our study suggest that alexithymia behaves like a stable personality trait in the general population.
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Alexithymia is generally conceptualised as a stable trait, though the temporal stability of its factors has been seen to differ, with difficulty identifying feelings and difficulty describing feelings increasing during depressive episodes.
“Alexithymia is generally conceptualised as a stable construct (a trait) [84–86], though the temporal stability of the factors (difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings and externally orientated thinking) has been seen to differ, the former two to increase when patients are in depressive episodes [87].”
From A 'choice', an 'addiction', a way 'out of the lost': Exploring self-injury in autistic people without intellectual disability (2019) · cites this paper as [85]
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References 24 · Cited by 104
- Authors
- Salminen, J. K., Saarijärvi, S., Toikka, T., Kauhanen, J., & Äärelä, E.
- Affiliations
- Social Insurance Institution (FI)
- University of Eastern Finland (FI)
- Corresponding author
- Salminen, J.K.
- ORCID
- Kauhanen, J.
- Venue
- Journal of Psychosomatic Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2006-08
- Volume
- 61
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 275-278
- ISSN
- 0022-3999 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2007029953
- Cited by
- 104
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 2.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Psychosomatic Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- STM:n Hallinnonalan avoin julkaisuarkisto (Julkari) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Kela
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research
- Keywords
- alexithymia, temporal stability, personality traits, longitudinal stability, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, trait versus state, general population
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Affective Symptoms, Finland, Health Surveys, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Middle Aged, Occupations, Personality, Psychological Tests, Socioeconomic Factors
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