Compared to young people with A-C grades, young people with D-fail grades showed significantly more difficulty describing feelings. These findings support previous research reporting a relationship between alexithymia and educational attainment (Joukamaa et al. 2003) and reading and verbal ability (Kokkonen et al. 2003; Way et al. 2007). Similarly, previous research has reported that individuals with clinical levels of alexithymia have significantly lower levels of education than participants with lower alexithymia scores (Honkalampi et al. 2000; Kokkonen et al. 2001; Mattila et al. 2006; Salminen et al. 1999) (studies measured educational levels by years of education or compulsory, secondary, higher education or secondary school graduates versus non-graduates).
Recognition of others’ emotions
In relation to recognition of others’ emotions, compared to young people with A-C grades, young people with D-fail grades showed reduced VEPR and FER ability across all emotions, reaching statistical significance for scores on VEPR overall, recognition of happiness
through facial (75% and 100% intensity) and verbal expressions and anger through facial expressions (at 75% intensity). In relation to qualifications, relative to young people with ≥ 5 GCSE’s, young people with ≤ 4 GCSE’s also showed reduced VEPR and FER ability across all emotions, reaching significance for recognition of facial happiness (75% and 100% intensity). These findings indicate that academic grades, appear to be capturing a factor more significantly/closely related to recognition of others emotions, than academic qualifications.
Whilst recognising that the current study did not formally assess cognitive ability, the above findings are in line with previous research reporting that cognitive and verbal ability are related to FER ability (Barchard & Hakstian, 2004; Herba & Phillips, 2004; Mitchell, 2007; Moore, 2001). Similarly, studies measuring the ability of YPwO to recognise others’ emotions
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have reported confounding variables of verbal intelligence, education (Gonzalez-Gadea et al. 2014; Jones et al., 2007; Savitsky & Czyzewski, 1978) and IQ scores (Sato et al., 2009) on FER ability.
The relationship between cognitive/ verbal ability and VEPR ability has not attracted a consensus (Wells & Peppe, 2003). The current study provides some evidence for the impact of educational grades on VEPR in YPwO, which might be explained by lower language ability (Weinert, 1992). An alternative interpretation might be that VEPR difficulties contribute to doing less well educationally.
Main study findings related to previous research
4.4.1 Alexithymia
The prevalence of clinically significant levels of alexithymia, using the TAS-20 cut off (≥61), for the sample as a whole (39%), YPwO (50%) and the control group (28%) is notably higher than the 6.9% to 15.9% reported in adolescent and young adult studies in Finland, Italy and New Zealand (Garisch & Wilson, 2010; Honkalampi et al. 2009; Joukamaa et al. 2007; Karukivi et al. 2010; Montebarocci et al. 2004; Säkkinen et al. 2007). This indicates that this South Wales sample shows higher levels of alexithymia than young people in other
countries. British cultural values of a ‘stiff upper lip’ may contribute to children and young people being less exposed to emotional language, essential for emotional skill development (Taylor et al. 1997; Wallin, 2007). Higher prevalence rates of alexithymia in the current sample in comparison to other groups in the general population may also be contributed to by a number of other demographic factors, such as psychological, social and learning environments (see section 1.3.4). Taken together, higher prevalence rates in the current sample compared to other studies with young people emphasises the need for more locally- based research.
In concordance with the current study, in a Swiss sample of participants, Zimmerman (2006) also reported higher prevalence rates of alexithymia amongst YPwO (47.2%), than the control group (21.7%). Prevalence rates aside, mean TAS-20 total, DDF and DIF subscale scores were higher in the YPwO group than in the control group, although these differences did not reach significance, failing to provide support for hypothesis three. Non-significant findings are consistent with previous research reporting higher alexithymia scores in YPwO than a comparison group, not reaching significance (Möller et al. 2014; Moriarty et al. 2001). However, these findings are not consistent with the study conducted by Zimmermann (2006), who reported that YPwO showed significantly higher TAS-20 and TAS-DIF scores.
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Of note, there were no significant differences in age, TAS total and subscale scores between the YPwO sample from the current study and Zimmermann’s (2006) study. Moreover, initial t-tests (with and without outliers) conducted with the current sample, indicated that YPwO showed significantly more difficulty identifying and describing feelings (see Appendix H). This suggests that confounding variables might contribute to the discrepancy between findings from the current study and those reported by Zimmermann (2006). In particular, attention might be drawn to the current study controlling for LAC status, which was
significantly related to difficulty identifying and describing feelings; a variable not controlled for in the study conducted by Zimmermann (2006).
Unexpectedly, in comparison to the YPwO group, the control group reported significantly higher levels of externally orientated thinking. However, the validity of the EOT subscale has received considerable criticism, described as satisfactory and moderate (Parker et al. 2003, 2010; Säkkinen et al. 2007), and reliability has been questioned (Kooiman et al. 2002; Taylor et al. 2003). Indeed, evaluating TAS-20 psychometric properties with a sample of
adolescents, Zimmermann et al. (2007) described internal reliability for the EOT as poor.
The current study was the first to also investigate alexithymia within subgroups of the YPwO, including number of offences (≤3 offences and ≥4 offences), offence type (violent and non- violent) and offence severity (low and high). In relation to number of offences and offence severity, no significant between group differences were identified in levels of alexithymia. However, in relation to offence type, ‘violent’ YPwO showed significantly lower levels of alexithymia overall and externally oriented thinking, than ‘non-violent only’ YPwO.
These findings are unexpected, as alexithymia has been associated with a reduced ability to regulate one’s emotions, increasing the risk of violence expression of emotional states (Nehemiah et al. 1976; Fossati et al. 2009) and offending behaviour (Fonagy, 2003). Furthermore, these findings contradict previous research by Möller et al. (2014), who
reported that, although not statistically significant, young people with violent offences scored higher on TAS-20 total and subscale scores.
Attention needs to be drawn to the findings by Möller et al (2014) being statistically non- significant, and findings from the current study reaching significance at the 95% confidence level in the context of multiple comparisons. A number of factors might contribute to
explaining the discrepancy between the current findings and findings reported by Möller et al. (2014). First and foremost, the current study categorized YPwO according to self-reported offences, whereas Möller et al. (2014) categorized according to service offending records. The current study allocated YPwO into the violent group, if any reported offence was violent
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in nature, whereas Möller et al (2014) allocated participants to each group based on whether the principal offence was classified as violent or non-violent. Furthermore, Möller et al. (2014) recruited older participants (aged 18-21) from a prison, as opposed to the community, did not control for confounding variables and participation was reported to possibly be
stressful, which may have led to response bias.