Page 49 - JCBP-2-2

Journal of Clinical and
Basic Psychosomatics Alexithymia as a mediator relationship

Table 5. Linear regression analysis of the prediction of alexithymia with sensory processing sensitivity components
Components Not standardized SC t Significance level 95% Confidence interval
B SE β Lower Upper
(Constant) 55.32 2.53 - 21.84 <0.001 50.34 60.29
EOE 0.34 0.05 0.32 7.51 <0.001 0.25 0.43
LST 0.22 0.05 0.18 4.29 <0.001 0.12 0.32
AES −0.90 0.09 −0.35 −10.30 <0.001 −1.07 −0.72
CHA −0.40 0.14 −0.10 −2.93 0.003 −0.66 −0.13
Note: r =0.208.
2
Abbreviations: AES: Esthetic sensitivity; CHA: Controlled harm avoidance; CI: Confidence interval; EOE: Ease of excitation; LST: Low sensory
threshold; SC: Standardized coefficient; SE: Standard error.
Table 6. Linear regression analysis of prediction of health anxiety with sensory processing sensitivity components

Components Not standardized SC t Significance level 95% Confidence interval
B SE β Lower Upper
(Constant) 23.89 3.45 - 6.93 <0.001 17.12 30.66
EOE 0.54 0.06 0.38 8.83 <0.001 0.42 0.66
LST 0.10 0.07 0.06 1.47 0.141 −0.03 0.24
AES −0.21 0.12 −0.06 −1.77 0.077 −0.44 0.02
CHA 0.19 0.18 0.04 1.01 0.314 -0.18 0.55
Note: r =0.178.
2
Abbreviations: AES: Esthetic Sensitivity; CHA: Controlled Harm Avoidance; CI: Confidence Interval; EOE: Ease of Excitation; LST: Low Sensory
Threshold; SC: Standardized coefficient; SE: Standard error.
Table 7. Linear regression analysis of prediction of health anxiety with alexithymia components
Components Not standardized SC t Significance level 95% Confidence interval
B SE β Lower Upper
(Constant) 36.08 2.43 - 14.85 <0.001 31.31 40.85
DIE 1.27 0.10 0.50 12.86 <0.001 1.08 1.46
DDE −0.69 0.13 −0.22 −5.41 <0.001 −0.94 −0.44
OOT 0.16 0.12 0.04 1.28 0.202 −0.08 0.40
Note: r =0.176.
2
Abbreviations: AES: Esthetic sensitivity; CHA: Controlled harm avoidance; CI: Confidence interval; EOE: Ease of excitation; LST: Low sensory
threshold; SC: Standardized coefficient; SE: Standard error.
3.6. Mediation effect through alexithymia between to difficulties in coping with certain stimuli (internal or
SPS and health anxiety external), on the health anxiety they may experience.
The overall model using overall scores (without considering 4. Discussion
the components) reveals that both HSPS and alexithymia
exert influences on health anxiety (P < 0.001) (Table 8). In this study, our focus was to explore the relationship
The completely standardized indirect effect of alexithymia between SPS and alexithymia, and their consequential
between HSPS and health anxiety is statistically significant, effect on health anxiety. In general, the literature indicates
indicating a partial mediation effect (Figure 1). This that high levels of both SPS and alexithymia correlate
mediation effect confirms that the relationship between with higher levels of anxiety symptomatology. By
HSPS and health anxiety can, to some extent, be explained analyzing a convenient and relatively large sample size
by alexithymia. In concrete terms, the observation suggests (814 participants), our results corroborate some of these
that alexithymia, which is the difficulties in describing existing findings. In addition, our results highlight the
or identifying emotions, contributes significantly to vulnerability associated with gender concerning both SPS
explaining the influence of hypersensitivity, which pertains and health anxiety, with women exhibiting higher scores

Volume 2 Issue 2 (2024) 7 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcbp.2681