Exploratory Study on the Prevalence of Alexithymia in a Child Welfare Population

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Alexithymia is a personality construct that represents a reduced ability to identify and describe feelings, a limited imagination, and externally oriented thinking.not classified as a mental disorder in the DSM-IV. Alexithymia raises special clinical issues: 1) it is known to be a trait and distributed across the general population where prevalence is 8-10% (Karukivi, 2011; Taylor & Bagby, 1988) and 2) it is a dimensional personality trait that varies in severity from one person to another (Parker, Keefer, Taylor, and Bagby, 2008). Since alexithymia in adolescents is likely to predict poorer outcome in several different mental disorders, the possibility of alexithymia in a child welfare population should be explored efficiently (Karukivi, 2011).

Faculty Supervisor:

David Haley

Student:

Fataneh Naghavi

Partner:

Children's Aid Society of Toronto

Discipline:

Psychology

Sector:

Medical devices

University:

Program: