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Krabbe, A., Sikka, P. & Jylkkä, J. (2024). Acceptance as a possible link between past psychedelic experiences and psychological flexibility. Scientific Reports, 14(1), Article ID 24253.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Acceptance as a possible link between past psychedelic experiences and psychological flexibility
2024 (English)In: Scientific Reports, E-ISSN 2045-2322, Vol. 14, no 1, article id 24253Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Increased psychological flexibility (PF) may underlie the lasting positive effects of psychedelic experiences on mental well-being. The associations between different components of PF, psychological inflexibility (PI), and well-being with psychedelic use are not well understood. We conducted a cross-sectional internet survey of participants (N = 629) with experience of classical psychedelics. Using network analysis, we examined how aspects of a single psychedelic experience (mystical-type features and psychological insights) and the frequency of past psychedelic use, were associated with current PF and PI components, as well as with mental well-being and ill-being. Mediation analyses explored whether PF mediated the relationship between past psychedelic use and well-being or ill-being. The network analysis linked psychological insight to the PF component Acceptance, with no association found between the frequency of past use and PF. Mediation analyses showed PF mediates the association between past psychedelic use and well-being and ill-being. These results suggest that the quality and depth of the psychedelic experience, rather than the frequency of use, are primarily linked to psychological flexibility, particularly Acceptance, and overall well-being. This underscores the importance of treating PF as a multidimensional construct to better understand the long-term mental health benefits of psychedelics. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer Nature, 2024
Keywords
Network analysis, Psychedelics, Psychological flexibility / inflexibility, Psychological insights, Well-being, Adaptation, Psychological, Adolescent, Adult, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Hallucinogens, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Middle Aged, Surveys and Questionnaires, Young Adult, psychedelic agent, cross-sectional study, human, psychological adjustment, questionnaire
National Category
Psychology (excluding Applied Psychology) Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology
Research subject
Consciousness and Cognitive Neuroscience
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:his:diva-24630 (URN)10.1038/s41598-024-75595-8 (DOI)001336670300066 ()39414891 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-85206575199 (Scopus ID)
Note

CC BY 4.0

© The Author(s) 2024

Published: 16 October 2024

Correspondence Address: A. Krabbe; Department of Psychology, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Arken Tehtaankatu 2, FI-20500, Finland; email: andreas.krabbe@abo.fi

The research was supported by the Kone foundation (#202105363) (JJ), Åbo Akademi University Foundation and Gösta Branders research fund (AK), the BIAL Foundation, and the Finnish Cultural Foundation (PS).

Available from: 2024-10-24 Created: 2024-10-24 Last updated: 2025-01-14Bibliographically approved
Preece, D. A., Petrova, K., Mehta, A., Sikka, P. & Gross, J. J. (2024). Alexithymia or general psychological distress?: Discriminant validity of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire. Journal of Affective Disorders, 352, 140-145
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Alexithymia or general psychological distress?: Discriminant validity of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire
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2024 (English)In: Journal of Affective Disorders, ISSN 0165-0327, E-ISSN 1573-2517, Vol. 352, p. 140-145Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Background: Alexithymia is an important transdiagnostic risk factor for emotion-based psychopathologies. However, it remains unclear whether alexithymia questionnaires actually measure alexithymia, or whether they measure emotional distress. Our aim here was to address this discriminant validity concern via exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ). Method: United States general community adults (N = 508) completed the TAS-20, PAQ, and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21). EFA was used to examine the latent dimensions underlying these measures' scores. Results: Our EFA extracted two higher-order factors, an “alexithymia” factor and a “general distress” factor (i.e., depression, anxiety, stress). All PAQ scores loaded cleanly on the alexithymia factor, with no cross-loadings on the distress factor. However, for the TAS-20, Difficulty Identifying Feelings (DIF) facet scores cross-loaded highly on the distress factor. Limitations: Our sample consisted of general community adults; future work in clinical settings will be useful. Conclusions: Our data indicate that the PAQ has good discriminant validity. However, the TAS-20 appears to have significant discriminant validity problems, in that much of the variance in its DIF facet reflects people's current levels of distress, rather than alexithymia. The TAS-20, which has traditionally been the most widely used alexithymia questionnaire, may therefore not be the optimal alexithymia tool. Our findings add to the body of evidence supporting the validity and utility of the PAQ and suggest that, moving forward, it is a superior option to the TAS-20 for alexithymia assessments.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2024
Keywords
Alexithymia, Discriminant validity, Distress, Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire, Toronto Alexithymia Scale
National Category
Psychiatry Applied Psychology Other Health Sciences Psychology Natural Sciences
Research subject
Consciousness and Cognitive Neuroscience
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:his:diva-23638 (URN)10.1016/j.jad.2024.01.271 (DOI)001198719800001 ()38320659 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-85185601431 (Scopus ID)
Note

CC BY 4.0 DEED

 © 2024 The Author(s)

Correspondence Address: D.A. Preece; Curtin University, School of Psychology, Bentley, Kent Street, 6102, Australia; email: david.preece@curtin.edu.au; CODEN: JADID

Funding: None.

Available from: 2024-02-29 Created: 2024-02-29 Last updated: 2024-04-24Bibliographically approved
Preece, D. A., Mehta, A., Petrova, K., Sikka, P., Pemberton, E. & Gross, J. J. (2024). Alexithymia profiles and depression, anxiety, and stress. Journal of Affective Disorders, 357, 116-125
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Alexithymia profiles and depression, anxiety, and stress
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2024 (English)In: Journal of Affective Disorders, ISSN 0165-0327, E-ISSN 1573-2517, Vol. 357, p. 116-125Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Background: Alexithymia is a multidimensional trait comprised of difficulties identifying feelings, difficulties describing feelings, and externally orientated thinking. It is regarded as an important risk factor for emotional disorders, but there are presently limited data on each specific facet of alexithymia, or the extent to which deficits in processing negative emotions, positive emotions, or both, are important. In this study, we address these gaps by using the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ) to comprehensively examine the relationships between alexithymia and depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. Methods: University students (N = 1250) completed the PAQ and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21. Pearson correlations, hierarchical regressions, and latent profile analysis were conducted. Results: All facets of alexithymia, across both valence domains, were significantly correlated with depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms (r = 0.27–0.40). Regression analyses indicated that the alexithymia facets, together, could account for a significant 14.6 %–16.4 % of the variance in depression, anxiety, and stress. Difficulties identifying negative feelings and difficulties identifying positive feelings were the strongest unique predictors across all symptom categories. Our latent profile analysis extracted eight profiles, comprising different combinations of alexithymia facets and psychopathology symptoms, collectively highlighting the transdiagnostic relevance of alexithymia facets. Limitations: Our study involved a student sample, and further work in clinical samples will be beneficial. Conclusions: Our data indicate that all facets of alexithymia, across both valence domains, are relevant for understanding depression, anxiety, and stress. These findings demonstrate the value of facet-level and valence-specific alexithymia assessments, informing more comprehensive understanding and more targeted treatments of emotional disorder symptoms. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2024
Keywords
Alexithymia, Anxiety, Depression, Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21, Perth alexithymia questionnaire, Psychopathology
National Category
Applied Psychology Psychiatry
Research subject
Consciousness and Cognitive Neuroscience
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:his:diva-23819 (URN)10.1016/j.jad.2024.02.071 (DOI)001290530500001 ()38387670 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-85191709592 (Scopus ID)
Note

CC BY 4.0 DEED

© 2024 The Authors

Correspondence Address: D.A. Preece; Curtin University, Curtin enAble Institute, Bentley, Kent Street, 6102 WA, Australia; email: david.preece@curtin.edu.au; CODEN: JADID

This research was supported by part funding of David A. Preece’s academic salary by the Raine Medical Research Foundation, Brightspark Foundation, Charter Hall, and the University of Western Australia Cockell Bequest. This research was supported by part funding of Pilleriin Sikka’s academic salary by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

Available from: 2024-05-13 Created: 2024-05-13 Last updated: 2024-08-23Bibliographically approved
Sikka, P., Tuominen, J., Ezquerro Nassar, A., Kirberg, M., Loukola, V., Revonsuo, A., . . . Noreika, V. (2024). COVID-19 on mind: Daily worry about the coronavirus is linked to negative affect experienced during mind-wandering and dreaming. Emotion, 24(1), 177-195
Open this publication in new window or tab >>COVID-19 on mind: Daily worry about the coronavirus is linked to negative affect experienced during mind-wandering and dreaming
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2024 (English)In: Emotion, ISSN 1528-3542, E-ISSN 1931-1516, Vol. 24, no 1, p. 177-195Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Despite a surge of studies on the effects of COVID-19 on our well-being, we know little about how the pandemic is reflected in people's spontaneous thoughts and experiences, such as mind-wandering (or daydreaming) during wakefulness and dreaming during sleep. We investigated whether and how COVID-19-related general concern, anxiety, and daily worry are associated with the daily fluctuation of the affective quality of mind-wandering and dreaming, and to what extent these associations can be explained by poor sleep quality. We used ecological momentary assessment by asking participants to rate the affect they experienced during mind-wandering and dreaming in daily logs over a 2-week period. Our preregistered analyses based on 1,755 dream logs from 172 individuals and 1,496 mind-wandering logs from 152 individuals showed that, on days when people reported higher levels of negative affect and lower levels of positive affect during mind-wandering, they experienced more worry. Only daily sleep quality was associated with affect experienced during dreaming at the within-person level: on nights with poorer sleep quality people reported experiencing more negative and less positive affect in dreams and were more likely to experience nightmares. However, at the between-person level, individuals who experienced more daily COVID-19 worry during the study period also reported experiencing more negative affect during mind-wandering and during dreaming. As such, the continuity between daily and nightly experiences seems to rely more on stable trait-like individual differences in affective processing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
American Psychological Association (APA), 2024
Keywords
COVID-19, emotion, spontaneous thought, mind-wandering, dreaming
National Category
Psychology (excluding Applied Psychology) Natural Sciences
Research subject
Consciousness and Cognitive Neuroscience
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:his:diva-23029 (URN)10.1037/emo0001255 (DOI)001019066500001 ()37347885 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-85170223093 (Scopus ID)
Note

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Pilleriin Sikka, Department of Psychology, Stanford University, 450 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA 94305, United States. Email: sikka@stanford.edu

Available from: 2023-07-13 Created: 2023-07-13 Last updated: 2024-02-14Bibliographically approved
Straus, L. D., ten Brink, M., Sikka, P., Srivastava, R., Gross, J. J. & Colvonen, P. J. (2024). The role of objective sleep in implicit and explicit affect regulation: A comprehensive review. Neurobiology of Stress, 31, Article ID 100655.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The role of objective sleep in implicit and explicit affect regulation: A comprehensive review
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2024 (English)In: Neurobiology of Stress, E-ISSN 2352-2895, Vol. 31, article id 100655Article, review/survey (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Impairments in sleep and affect regulation are evident across a wide range of mental disorders. Understanding the sleep factors that relate to affect regulatory difficulties will inform mechanistic understanding and aid in treatment. Despite rising interest, some research challenges in this area include integrating across different clinical and non-clinical literatures investigating the role of sleep architecture (measured with polysomnography) and experimentally manipulated sleep, as well as integrating more explicit versus implicit affect regulation processes. In this comprehensive review, we use a unifying framework to examine sleep's relationship with implicit-automatic regulation and explicit-controlled regulation, both of which are relevant to mental health (e.g., PTSD and depression). Many studies of implicit-automatic regulation (e.g., fear extinction and safety learning) demonstrate the importance of sleep, and REM sleep specifically. Studies of explicit-controlled regulation (e.g., cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) are less consistent in their findings, with results differing depending on the type of affect regulation and/or way that sleep was measured or manipulated. There is a clear relationship between objective sleep and affect regulation processes. However, there is a need for 1) more studies focusing on sleep and explicit-controlled affect regulation; 2) replication with the same types of regulation strategies; 3) more studies experimentally manipulating sleep to examine its impact on affect regulation and vice versa in order to infer cause and effect; and 4) more studies looking at sleep's impact on next-day affect regulation (not just overnight change in affect reactivity).

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2024
Keywords
Sleep, Affect regulation, Posttraumatic sequelae, Polysomnography
National Category
Applied Psychology Neurosciences Psychology (excluding Applied Psychology)
Research subject
Consciousness and Cognitive Neuroscience
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:his:diva-24175 (URN)10.1016/j.ynstr.2024.100655 (DOI)001261600300001 ()39036771 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-85196797032 (Scopus ID)
Note

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Corresponding author: 4150 Clement St. (116P), San Francisco, CA, 94121, USA. E-mail address: laura.straus@ucsf.edu (L.D. Straus).

LDS is supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs Clinical Science Research and Development Award: IK2CX002032. P.S. was supported by research grants from Emil Aaltonen Foundation (Finland), Alfred Kordelin Foundation (Finland), and the Finnish Cultural Foundation. MtB was supported by research fellowships from the National Science Foundation, P.E.O. International, and the American Association of University Women. PJC is supported by Veterans Affairs RR&D Merit Award 1 I01 RX003623-01. 

Available from: 2024-07-04 Created: 2024-07-04 Last updated: 2024-10-09Bibliographically approved
Sikka, P. & Gross, J. J. (2023). Affect Across the Wake-Sleep Cycle. Affective Science, 4, 563-569
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Affect Across the Wake-Sleep Cycle
2023 (English)In: Affective Science, ISSN 2662-2041, Vol. 4, p. 563-569Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Affective scientists traditionally have focused on periods of active wakefulness when people are responding to external stimuli or engaging in specific tasks. However, we live much of our lives immersed in experiences not related to the current environment or tasks at hand—mind-wandering (or daydreaming) during wakefulness and dreaming during sleep. Despite being disconnected from the immediate environment, our brains still generate affect during such periods. Yet, research on stimulus-independent affect has remained largely separate from affective science. Here, we suggest that one key future direction for affective science will be to expand our field of view by integrating the wealth of findings from research on mind-wandering, sleep, and dreaming to provide a more comprehensive account of affect across the wake-sleep cycle. In developing our argument, we address two key issues: affect variation across the wake-sleep cycle, and the benefits of expanding the study of affect across the full wake-sleep cycle. In considering these issues, we highlight the methodological and clinical implications for affective science. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer Nature, 2023
Keywords
Affect coherence, Affect dynamics, Affect regulation, Dreaming, Mind-wandering, Sleep
National Category
Neurosciences
Research subject
Consciousness and Cognitive Neuroscience
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:his:diva-23083 (URN)10.1007/s42761-023-00204-2 (DOI)001044341000001 ()37744973 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-85166439811 (Scopus ID)
Note

CC BY 4.0

© 2023, The Author(s).

Published online: 2 August 2023

Correspondence Address: P. Sikka; Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, 450 Jane Stanford Way, 94305, United States; email: sikka@stanford.edu

This work was supported by research grants from the Finnish Foundations’ Post Doc Pool (to P.S.), Emil Aaltonen Foundation (to P.S.), and Finnish Cultural Foundation (to P.S.). We would like to thank Dr. Maia ten Brink and Kate Petrova for valuable comments on the manuscript.

Available from: 2023-08-10 Created: 2023-08-10 Last updated: 2024-08-16Bibliographically approved
Preece, D. A., Mehta, A., Petrova, K., Sikka, P., Bjureberg, J., Becerra, R. & Gross, J. J. (2023). Alexithymia and emotion regulation. Journal of Affective Disorders, 324, 232-238
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Alexithymia and emotion regulation
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2023 (English)In: Journal of Affective Disorders, ISSN 0165-0327, E-ISSN 1573-2517, Vol. 324, p. 232-238Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Background

Alexithymia is a key transdiagnostic risk factor for emotion-based psychopathologies. Conceptual models specify that this is because alexithymia impairs emotion regulation. However, the extent of these putative emotion regulation impairments remains underexplored. Our aim in this study was to begin to address this gap by examining whether people with high, average, or low levels of alexithymia differ in the types of emotion regulation strategies they typically use.

Method

General community adults from the United States (N = 501) completed a battery of alexithymia and emotion regulation measures. Participants were grouped into high, average, and low alexithymia quantiles.

Results

After controlling for demographics and current levels of distress, the high, average, and low alexithymia groups differed in their use of cognitive and behavioral emotion regulation strategies. Compared to the other groups, the high alexithymia group reported lesser use of generally adaptive regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal, approaching problems, and seeking social support) and greater use of generally maladaptive regulation strategies (expressive suppression, behavioral withdrawal, ignoring).

Limitations

Our data were cross-sectional and from self-report questionnaires. Future work in other cultural groups would be beneficial.

Conclusions

Our results support the view that alexithymia is associated with impaired emotion regulation. In particular, people with high alexithymia seem to exhibit a less adaptive profile of emotion regulation strategies. Direct targeting of these emotion regulation patterns in psychotherapy may therefore be a useful pathway for the treatment of emotional disorder symptoms in people with high alexithymia.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2023
Keywords
alexithymia, emotion regulation, individual differences, strategies, cognitive, behavioral, process model of emotion regulation
National Category
Natural Sciences Psychology
Research subject
Consciousness and Cognitive Neuroscience
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:his:diva-22167 (URN)10.1016/j.jad.2022.12.065 (DOI)000918362600001 ()36566943 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-85145730520 (Scopus ID)
Note

Available online 23 December 2022

Available from: 2023-01-01 Created: 2023-01-01 Last updated: 2023-02-16Bibliographically approved
Sikka, P., Revonsuo, A. & Gross, J. J. (2023). Individual differences in peace of mind reflect adaptive emotion regulation. Personality and Individual Differences, 215, Article ID 112378.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Individual differences in peace of mind reflect adaptive emotion regulation
2023 (English)In: Personality and Individual Differences, ISSN 0191-8869, E-ISSN 1873-3549, Vol. 215, article id 112378Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Well-being consists of several different dimensions, such as hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. However, peace of mind (PoM)—an aspect of well-being characterized by internal peace and harmony—has only recently begun to receive attention. It has been shown that PoM predicts important outcomes, such as depression and anxiety. An open question is what underlies individual differences in PoM. One important factor may be emotion regulation. However, to date, no studies have been conducted on PoM and emotion regulation. Here, we investigated the relationship between individual differences in PoM and trait emotion regulation. In two studies, participants from Finland (Study 1, N = 417) and the US (Study 2, N = 303) completed measures of PoM, trait emotion regulation, and other aspects of well-being and ill-being. Results showed that people with higher levels of PoM displayed a greater tendency to use cognitive reappraisal and a lesser tendency to use expressive suppression. Our findings suggest that adaptive emotion regulation may play an important role in explaining PoM and may serve as a promising target for interventions designed to enhance PoM. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2023
Keywords
Cognitive reappraisal, Emotion regulation, Expressive suppression, Happiness, Peace of mind, Well-being
National Category
Neurosciences
Research subject
Consciousness and Cognitive Neuroscience
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:his:diva-23186 (URN)10.1016/j.paid.2023.112378 (DOI)001070485000001 ()2-s2.0-85169051196 (Scopus ID)
Note

CC BY 4.0

© 2023 The Authors

Corresponding author at: Department of Psychology, Stanford University, 420 Jane Stanford Way, 94305 Stanford, CA, USA. E-mail address: sikka@stanford.edu (P. Sikka).

Available from: 2023-09-07 Created: 2023-09-07 Last updated: 2023-12-19Bibliographically approved
Blackburn, A. M., Han, H., Gelpí, R. A., Stöckli, S., Jeftić, A., Ch'ng, B., . . . Vestergren, S. (2023). Mediation analysis of conspiratorial thinking and anti-expert sentiments on vaccine willingness. Health Psychology, 42(4), 235-246
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Mediation analysis of conspiratorial thinking and anti-expert sentiments on vaccine willingness
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2023 (English)In: Health Psychology, ISSN 0278-6133, E-ISSN 1930-7810, Vol. 42, no 4, p. 235-246Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Objective: Vaccines are an effective means to reduce the spread of diseases, but they are sometimes met with hesitancy that needs to be understood. Method: In this study, we analyzed data from a large, cross-country survey conducted between June and August 2021 in 43 countries (N = 15,740) to investigate the roles of trust in government and science in shaping vaccine attitudes and willingness to be vaccinated. Results: Despite significant variability between countries, we found that both forms of institutional trust were associated with a higher willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Furthermore, we found that conspiratorial thinking and anti-expert sentiments predicted reduced trust in government and science, respectively, and that trust mediated the relationship between these two constructs and ultimate vaccine attitudes. Although most countries displayed similar relationships between conspiratorial thinking and anti-expert sentiments, trust in government and science, and vaccine attitudes, we identified three countries (Brazil, Honduras, and Russia) that demonstrated significantly altered associations between the examined variables in terms of significant random slopes. Conclusions: Cross-country differences suggest that local governments’ support for COVID-19 prevention policies can influence populations’ vaccine attitudes. These findings provide insight for policymakers to develop interventions aiming to increase trust in the institutions involved in the vaccination process.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
American Psychological Association (APA), 2023
Keywords
anti-expert sentiments, conspiratorial thinking, vaccine hesitancy, trust, government
National Category
Natural Sciences Psychology Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology
Research subject
Consciousness and Cognitive Neuroscience; Consciousness and Cognitive Neuroscience
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:his:diva-22483 (URN)10.1037/hea0001268 (DOI)000964769600002 ()37023325 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-85151864291 (Scopus ID)
Note

the COVIDiSTRESS II Consortium

Available from: 2023-05-02 Created: 2023-05-02 Last updated: 2023-08-23Bibliographically approved
Preece, D. A., Mehta, A., Petrova, K., Sikka, P., Bjureberg, J., Chen, W., . . . Gross, J. J. (2023). The Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire-Short Form (PAQ-S): A 6-item measure of alexithymia. Journal of Affective Disorders, 325, 493-501
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire-Short Form (PAQ-S): A 6-item measure of alexithymia
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2023 (English)In: Journal of Affective Disorders, ISSN 0165-0327, E-ISSN 1573-2517, Vol. 325, p. 493-501Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

BACKGROUND: Alexithymia is a trait characterized by difficulties identifying feelings, difficulties describing feelings, and externally orientated thinking. It is widely regarded as an important transdiagnostic risk factor for a range of psychopathologies, including depressive and anxiety disorders. Whilst several well-validated psychometric measures of alexithymia exist, these are relatively lengthy, thus limiting their utility in time-pressured settings. In this paper, we address this gap by introducing and validating a brief 6-item version of the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire, called the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire-Short Form (PAQ-S). METHOD: Across two studies with adult samples (Study 1 N = 508 United States community; Study 2 = 378 Australian college students), we examined the psychometric properties of the PAQ-S in terms of its factor structure, reliability, and concurrent/criterion validity. RESULTS: In exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, all PAQ-S items loaded well on a single general alexithymia factor. The PAQ-S total score had high reliability, and correlated as expected with the long-form of the PAQ, as well as other established markers of alexithymia, emotion regulation, and affective disorder symptoms. LIMITATIONS: Our samples were general community or college student samples from two Western countries; future validation work in clinical samples and more diverse cultural groups is thus needed. CONCLUSIONS: The PAQ-S retains the psychometric strengths of the PAQ. As such, the PAQ-S can be used as a quick, robust measure of overall alexithymia levels. The introduction of the PAQ-S hence enables valid assessments of alexithymia in a more diverse range of settings and research designs. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2023
Keywords
Adult, Affective Symptoms, Australia, Emotions, Humans, Psychometrics, Reproducibility of Results, Surveys and Questionnaires, emotion, emotional disorder, human, psychology, psychometry, questionnaire, reproducibility, Alexithymia, Assessment, Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire
National Category
Psychiatry Natural Sciences Psychology
Research subject
Consciousness and Cognitive Neuroscience
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:his:diva-22298 (URN)10.1016/j.jad.2023.01.036 (DOI)000963194200001 ()36642314 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-85147790290 (Scopus ID)
Note

CC BY 4.0 DEED

© 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Corresponding author at: Curtin University, School of Psychology, Kent Street, Bentley 6102, WA, Australia. E-mail address: david.preece@curtin.edu.au (D.A. Preece)

Funding: None.

Available from: 2023-02-23 Created: 2023-02-23 Last updated: 2023-11-28Bibliographically approved
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