The mediating role of alexithymia in the relationship between personality beliefs and somatization

This study aims to examine the mediating effect of alexithymia on the relationship between personality beliefs and somatization. Personality beliefs include avoidant, dependent, antisocial, passive-aggressive, obsessive-compulsive, histrionic, narcissistic, schizoid, paranoid and borderline personality belief subscales. The total number of participants in the study is 457, 295 of whom were female and 162 were male; the age range of the participants is 18-65. The scales used to measure the research variables were the Sociodemographic Information Form, Personality Belief Scale Short Form (KİÖ Short Form), Somatization Scale and Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAÖ-20), respectively. The research data were collected online. Participants were reached through convenient sampling method. Data analysis was conducted using the IBM SPSS Statistics 25 packet program. Analyses conducted in the findings section of the study, Pearson correlation analysis, reliability analysis, One-Way ANOVA, Independent Groups T-Test, Hierarchical Regression and PROCESS Makro v4.2 Model 4 and Mediation Effect analysis were applied. According to the findings, it was found that all sub-dimensions of the personality belief scale had a significant effect on somatization, alexithymia had a significant effect on somatization and all sub-dimensions of the personality belief scale had a significant effect on alexithymia. Mediator effect analyses were conducted separately for the 10 sub-dimensions of personality beliefs. According to the findings, alexithymia was found to have a mediator role in the relationship between personality beliefs and somatization for all sub-dimensions of personality beliefs.