Attachment Avoidance, Alexithymia and Cultural Orientation: Examining their Associations with Distress Disclosure

Verbal expression of distress is key in psychotherapeutic practice (Freud, 1913). Developing a greater understanding of the cognitive, developmental and societal factors which may have an affect an individual’s ability to discuss psychologically distressing material is thus of direct relevance to Counselling Psychology in practice and theory. This research examined the associations between attachment avoidance, alexithymia, cultural orientation and distress disclosure. Three hundred and eighty-four participants completed five internet-based questionnaires relevant to demographics, attachment avoidance (Experiences in Close Relationship Scale – Revised; ECR-R; Fraley, Waller, et al., 2000)., alexithymia (Toronto Alexithymia Scale; TAS-20; Bagby et al., 1994)., distress disclosure (Distress Disclosure Index; DDI; Kahn & Hessling, 2001). and cultural orientation (Individualism-Collectivism Scale also called Culture Orientation Scale; HVIC; Triandis & Gelfand, 1998). A mediation analysis was preformed investigating the relationship between attachment avoidance, alexithymia and distress disclosure; moderated mediation analyses were performed investigating the associations between attachment avoidance, alexithymia cultural orientations and distress disclosure. Results indicated that alexithymia mediated the relation between attachment avoidance and distress disclosure; vertical collectivism (but not horizontal collectivism or vertical individualism) strengthened the relationship between attachment avoidance and alexithymia. The expected result that horizontal individualism would moderate the relationship between attachment avoidance and alexithymia, partially explaining the relationship to distress disclosure was not found. Results are discussed in the context of the literature, together with their relevance to Counselling Psychology theory, practice and research. Some limitations of the study and ideas for future research are suggested.