The maladaptive aspect of observing: Interactive effects of mindfulness and alexithymia on trait anxiety

A five-facet model of mindfulness has been found to show negative associations between the facets and trait anxiety, with the exception of the observing facet. Observing is positively related to anxious individuals who react to experiences. The present study focused on alexithymia, which is a stable trait of emotional reactivity, and investigated the moderating role of alexithymia in a non-clinical sample (N = 300). Correlation analysis confirmed that trait anxiety was negatively correlated with the facets of mindfulness except for observing and positively correlated with the cognitive dimension of alexithymia. Furthermore, the association between observing and anxiety was moderated by difficulty emotionalizing and fantasizing in alexithymia. Observing was positively associated with anxiety at low levels of difficulty emotionalizing. On the other hand, the positive association between observing and anxiety was presented at high levels of difficulty fantasizing, which are related to high defensiveness. These results suggest that in individuals with high arousal tendencies during emotional experiences, observing is associated with high trait anxiety.