Venta Amanda, Hart John, Sharp Carla
Department of Psychology, 126 Heyne Building, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, USA.
Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2013 Jul;18(3):398-410. doi: 10.1177/1359104512455815. Epub 2012 Sep 18.
Recently, efforts have been made to better understand constructs that are associated with difficulties in emotion regulation in hopes of identifying underlying mechanisms that may be valuable targets for intervention. Against this background, the present study had two aims. Firstly, we wanted to explore the relation between emotion regulation, experiential avoidance and alexithymia by determining whether adolescents with elevated scores on a measure of alexithymia would report deficits in emotion regulation and experiential avoidance. Secondly, we sought to evaluate the role of experiential avoidance as a mediator in the relation between alexithymia and emotion regulation. The sample (N = 64) consisted of adolescents recruited from an inpatient facility of which approximately 30% were classified as having alexithymia. The results of this study indicate that adolescents with alexithymia report deficits in emotion regulation and elevated experiential avoidance. Experiential avoidance mediated the relation between alexithymia and emotion regulation, indicating that while the inability to effectively use language to identify and describe emotional states is strongly correlated with difficulties in regulating one's emotions, this relation is mediated by the unwillingness to tolerate aversive private experiences. Limitations and strengths of the present study are also noted.
最近，人们一直在努力更好地理解与情绪调节困难相关的概念，以期确定可能成为有价值干预目标的潜在机制。在此背景下，本研究有两个目的。首先，我们想通过确定在述情障碍测量中得分较高的青少年是否会报告情绪调节和经验性回避方面的缺陷，来探索情绪调节、经验性回避和述情障碍之间的关系。其次，我们试图评估经验性回避在述情障碍与情绪调节关系中作为中介的作用。样本（N = 64）由从一家住院机构招募的青少年组成，其中约30%被归类为患有述情障碍。本研究结果表明，患有述情障碍的青少年报告了情绪调节方面的缺陷和更高的经验性回避。经验性回避介导了述情障碍与情绪调节之间的关系，这表明虽然无法有效运用语言来识别和描述情绪状态与调节自身情绪的困难密切相关，但这种关系是由不愿容忍厌恶的个人体验所介导的。本研究的局限性和优势也得到了指出。
