Attachment Avoidance, Alexithymia, and Gender: Examining Their Associations With Distress Disclosure Tendencies and Event-Specific Disclosure

Distress disclosure has been linked with reduced psychological distress, increased wellbeing, and successful psychotherapeutic outcome. Because of the importance of distress disclosure, researchers have worked to develop and improve theoretical models of disclosure to facilitate counseling practices that reduce impediments to disclosure. Presently, we conducted a 2-part study to investigate distress disclosure's associations with attachment avoidance, gender, and alexithymia-3 constructs frequently linked with disclosure. In Part 1, we examined the extent to which attachment avoidance, alexithymia, and gender predicted general disclosure tendencies. In Part 2, we examined the extent to which attachment avoidance, alexithymia, and gender predicted event-specific disclosure. Participants were recruited from a crowdsourcing website (N = 178 in Part 1; N = 108 in Part 2). In Part 1, alexithymia partially mediated the association between attachment avoidance and disclosure tendencies, and the link between attachment avoidance and alexithymia was stronger for men than women. In Part 2, the association between distress intensity and event-specific disclosure was weaker for people with high levels of alexithymia. Implications for counseling theory and practice are discussed. Public Significance Statement This study suggests that personality factors, such as attachment style and capacity for identifying and describing emotions, predict the frequency with which people disclose personally distressing information. The findings of this study are important as they contribute to a better understanding of the individual differences that relate to distress disclosure, a behavior associated with emotion regulation, mental health, and successful therapeutic outcome.