The Relationship between Alexithymia and Attachment Styles among University Students

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the relationship between Alexithymia (Alex) and attachment styles, gender, familysize, parent's level of education among a randomly selected sample of (392)undergraduate students (136 male, 256female), at Al-Hussein Bin Talal University. To achieve the objectives of this study, the twenty-item TorontoAlexithymia Scale (TAS-20), which was standardized by Dawoud (2016) and Yarmouk Attachment Scale developedby Abu Ghazal and Jaradat (2009) were applied, after verifying their validity and reliability. The results of the studyrevealed a significant negative correlations between Alex and secure attachment, while the correlations between Alexand avoidant attachment, and anxious-ambivalent attachment styles were positively significant. Also, there wassignificant positive correlation between Alex with gender and family size. Finally; no significant correlations werefound between Alex with parent’s education.