Alexithymia and Security Need Satisfaction in University Student Youth in the Pre-Covid Period and during the Pandemic

Abstract

The study featured the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the need for security in students with alexithymia. The authors compared indicators of alexithymia, subjective well-being, emotional intelligence, and emotional communication barriers 1) in students with alexithymia in the pre-COVID period and during the pandemic and 2) in students with alexithymia and control group during the pandemic. The research involved such mathematical statistics methods as Fisher’s angular transform (φ) and Student’s t-test. The data processing revealed an increase in the alexithymic manifestations and dissatisfaction with the need for security, especially in stability, predictability, and protection from the outside world against the background of deactualization of the need to be loved. Poor emotional intelligence associated with alexithymia reflected the level of understanding of one's own emotional states and the ability to control them. It resulted in a sense of global instability, associated with dissatisfaction with the need for security and a state of subjective distress. The pandemic had no significant impact on emotional competencies and skills but contributed to the development of subjective distress in alexithymics. The negative dynamics affected the cluster of social environment significance: students with alexithymia felt lonely, could not seek help, and avoided communication with family or friends.

Keywords

• alexithymia
• emotional intelligence
• emotional communication barriers
• need for security
• subjective well-being
• pandemic