The Relationship Between Alexithymia, Callous Affect, Aggression, and Emerging Adulthood

Emerging adulthood is a term used to define a time of development for college-aged (i.e. aged 18-29 years) individuals experiencing a period of identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling ‘in-between’, and a time of possibilities and optimism (Arnett, 2014). During emerging adulthood, it is common for young adults to experience elevated levels of psychopathic traits (Smits, et al. 2011). Psychopathic traits such as callous affect, impulsivity, and narcissism have been known to be a risk factor for aggressive behaviors (Marsee, et al. 2005). It was expected that higher levels of callous affect and Borderline Personality traits would be associated with higher levels of aggression. The study used a correlational design that used a series of self-report surveys to measure alexithymia (Preece, et al, 2018), callous affect (Williams, Paulhus, & Hare, 2007), borderline traits (Lohanan, et al, 2020), emotional regulation (Zeman, et al., 2001, 2002), emerging adulthood (Reifman, Arnett, & Colwell, 2007), direct and indirect aggression (Bryant & Smith, 2001), and proactive and reactive aggression (Raine, et al., 2006). The results indicated that while all of the variables measured had a relationship to aggression, callous affect was the main predictive variable that was driving the relationship. In the future, it would be beneficial to examine the relationship alexithymia has to aggression as well as evaluate callous affect and alexithymia in regards to different demographics to determine if these results are generalizable to the whole population