Alexithymia, Coping Styles and Traumatic Stress Symptoms in a Sample of Veterans Who Experienced Military Sexual Trauma

Abstract

The current study examined the association between alexithymia and coping styles (planning, positive reinterpretation and growth, social-emotion coping, and denial), and trauma symptoms in a clinical sample of 170 male and female veterans who experienced sexual trauma during military service. Denial was the only coping style positively associated with trauma symptoms, and it mediated the relationship between alexithymia and trauma symptoms. Alexithymia was negatively associated with planning. Likewise, alexithymia was negatively associated with social-emotional coping and with positive reinterpretation and growth. The results speak to the significant role that alexithymia has in predicting individual coping styles.