The Relationship Between Alexithymia and Marital Satisfaction Among Married Individuals

Abstract

Alexithymia, a personality trait marked by difficulty identifying and describing one's own emotions, has been theorized to interfere with the emotional closeness and communication that sustain intimate partnerships. This study examined the relationship between alexithymia and marital satisfaction among 300 married individuals recruited from Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Wah Cantt, and Taxila, Pakistan. A cross-sectional survey design was used, with alexithymia assessed via the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ) and marital satisfaction assessed via the Couples Satisfaction Index (CSI-16). Pearson product-moment correlation results revealed a strong, statistically significant negative relationship between alexithymia and marital satisfaction (r = -.78, p < .01), indicating that individuals who reported greater difficulty identifying, describing, and processing their emotions also reported markedly lower satisfaction within their marriages. All alexithymia subdimensions; difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings, and externally oriented thinking were similarly and strongly associated with reduced satisfaction. These findings, obtained within a collectivist cultural context where emotional restraint is normative, extend prior Western-based research and suggest that alexithymia may pose an even greater relational risk in cultures where open emotional expression is already limited by social convention. Implications for couple therapy, including screening for alexithymia and incorporating emotion-focused interventions, are discussed alongside limitations and directions for future longitudinal and dyadic research.