A Study Of The Relationship Of Alexithymia And Dissociative Experiences With Anxiety And Depression In Students

Aim: The purpose of the study was to explore the association of alexithymia and dissociative experiences with anxiety and depression. Method: A descriptive-correlation research design was used. The study population comprised all university students, male and female, studying at the Ardebil branch of Islamic Azad University during the years 2009 and 2010 (N=10433, males=5592 and females=4841). Using a randomized stratified cluster sampling procedure 209 women and 241 men were recruited for the study. Data were collected using the Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, the 28 item Dissociative Experiences Scale, and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale. The results: The quartile scores for Alexithymia and dissociative experiences were much higher than those reported in western cultures. Total alexithymia scores as well as two of the components of alexithymia, difficulty identifying feelings and difficulty describing feelings were positively associated with anxiety and depression. Reduced fantasy and imaginal activity were negatively associated both with anxiety and depression. As regards dissociative experiences, total scale scores as well as subscale scores of amnestic experiences, depersonalization, derealization, and imaginal involvement were positively related to anxiety and depression. Difficulty in identifying feelings and difficulty in describing feelings, amnestic experiences, depersonalization and derealization explained 7.4%, 1.5%, 11.9% and 2.1% of the variance in depression. Furthermore, difficulty in identifying feelings, amnestic experiences, depersonalization, derealization and imaginal involvement explained 9.9%, 9.7%, 2% and 1.8% of the variance in anxiety. An examination of gender differences revealed higher scores among men on amnestic experiences, depersonalization and derealization, and higher scores for women on externally oriented thinking, while no gender differences emerged on the other scale sores. Conclusions: Although the associations of alexithymia and dissociative experiences with anxiety and depression paralleled those observed in other cultures, alexithymia and dissociative experiences reported by Iranian college students were much higher than expected. Findings reveal the impact of culture and point to the need for taking cultural factors into account when studying alexithymi a and dissociative experiences. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.