| Summary: | 碩士 === 高雄醫學大學 === 心理學研究所 === 98 === Background: Alexithymics are relatively lacking in the ability to empathize; this condition is also highly prevalent in psychiatric disorders. Previous studies have separately found the relationship between parental bonding, personality characteristics and alexithymia; however, the pathway relationship among the three is uncertain. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate both whether alexithymia is a predictor for mental health and adjustment disorder, and its pathway relationships with parental rearing style and personality characteristics. In addition, if alexithymia is a precipitating factor for adjustment disorder, whether it can be used as an efficient and cost-effective screening instrument for mental health.
Methods: One-hundred and fifty-eight young male compulsory military soldiers diagnosed with adjustment disorder and another 155 young normal male soldier controls were recruited. All participants had to fill out the Parental Bonding Inventory, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and Chinese Health Questionnaire.
Results: The mean age of the case group was 21.46 (standard deviation, SD=2.35), and the control group, 22.94 (SD=2.26). Structural equation modeling showed that those with the pathway relationships of parental bonding influencing personality characteristics, personality characteristics affecting alexithymic traits, and alexithymic traits affecting mental health were more likely to develop adjustment disorder. Without the mediating factor of mental health, alexithymia was predictive of adjustment disorder. Of the three factors in the TAS-20, DIF had a direct effect on adjustment disorder, and the above-mentioned factors accounted for a 59% variance within this sample. Receiver operating characteristic found the optimal cutoff point for screening of adjustment disorder using DIF was 21/22, resulting in a sensitivity of 0.84, specificity of 0.87, positive predictive value of 0.87, and negative predictive value of 0.84.
Discussions: This study found the pathway relationship between parental bonding, personality characteristics, alexithymia, mental health and adjustment disorder. In addition, the DIF sub-scale of alexithymia can be used as a screening index for adjustment disorder. With the high degree of association between alexithymia and other psychiatric disorders, especially in those relatively lacking in the ability to empathize, future studies should investigate whether DIF can be generalizable to the screening of other empathy-related and psychiatric disorders.
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