Associations Between Affective Temperaments and Alexithymia in Healthy Young Adults

Abstract Background: Alexithymia is characterised by difficulties in identifying and expressing emotions and has been predominantly examined in clinical populations. However, evidence regarding its association with affective temperament dimensions—considered biologically based traits—in non-clinical samples remains limited. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the relationships between affective temperament dimensions and alexithymia and its sub-dimensions in a non-clinical sample of university students. Methods: The study included 107 non-clinical university students who completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego Auto-questionnaire (TEMPS-A). Non-parametric tests were used for group comparisons, Spearman correlation analyses assessed inter-variable relationships, and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to identify temperament dimensions predicting alexithymia. Results: Depressive, cyclothymic, irritable, and anxious temperament dimensions showed moderate positive correlations with TAS-20 total scores. At the sub-dimension level, cyclothymic and anxious temperaments emerged as the strongest predictors of Difficulty Identifying Feelings (DIF), whereas hyperthymic temperament was negatively associated with DIF. The regression model explained approximately 48% of the variance in TAS-20 total scores. Additionally, alexithymia showed small-to-moderate associations with family structure, traumatic experiences, and chronic illness. Conclusions: The findings suggest that alexithymia—particularly the Difficulty Identifying Feelings dimension—is associated with affective temperament traits largely independent of sociodemographic factors. These results support the notion that alexithymia may reflect temperament dimensions explained a substantial proportion of variance in alexithymia scores in this sample of healthy young adults. Key words: alexithymia; affective temperament; emotional awareness; personality traits