The Impact of Alexithymia

This study examines how satisfaction is related to culture, alexithymia (difficulty in distinguishing between and identifying emotions), emotional intelligence, and marital values.

Korean American, Korean-native, European American, and mixed-culture married and dating heterosexual couples were recruited to participate in the current study.

They were administered an alexithymia scale (TAS-20), an emotional intelligence scale (33-item Assessing Emotions Scale), a measure assessing quality of the relationship (Dyadic Adjustment Scale), and a marital values scale (Marital VOWS).

Findings suggest that some variables were influenced by the minority-majority statues of the group, some by the country of residence, some by the culture of origin, and others remained constant across groups.

The results indicated that level of marital satisfaction varied across ethnic cultures.

Higher emotional intelligence was a stronger predictor for higher marital satisfaction among Korean-natives compared to Korean Americans as a function of minority/majority culture.

Surprisingly, in mixed-culture couples an inverse relationship was found between these two variables.

Covenantal views toward marriage was a predictor for higher relationship among the Koreans irrespective of their country of residence, however in European Americans one's values orientation toward marriage was not linked to relationship satisfaction.

Results indicated that alexithymia had a negative impact on relationship satisfaction across cultures.

The degree of influence appeared to vary but not statistically different.

These differences suggest that when working with ethnic minority couples alternative factors must be taken into account.

Different emotional factors may need to be emphasized in order to work effectively with these populations.