Alexithymia and Perceived Loneliness: An Alarm for Girls' Tendency to High-Risk Behaviors

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

clinical psychology, management faculty, pardis farabi, University of Tehran

Abstract

For several reasons, risk-taking behaviors have increased among Iranian girls in recent years. Risk-taking behaviors endanger their physical, mental, and social health. The purpose of this study was to investigate effect of alexithymia and loneliness on high risk behaviors in female college students. This is a descriptive and correlational study. In order to do this research 530female students were recruited to complete electronic questionnaires such as Toronto Twenty Item Alexithymia Scale, Iranian Adolescents Risk-taking Scale and the Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults (SELSA-S) using social networks (telegrams). Structural equations were used for data analysis. The results of this study showed that alexithymia both directly and with combination to perceived loneliness have impacted on risk-taking behaviors. Loneliness directly was negatively and significantly effective on the tendency toward high-risk behaviors. Alexithymia (difficulty in identifying and regulation of emotion) causes girls to find problem in communication, and their loneliness can lead to risk-taking behaviors.

Keywords


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