Relationship between alexithymia and impact of event of prison male offenders

Objective To explore the relationship between the alexithymia and impact of event of the prison male offenders. Methods 267 male inmates in one prison of Tangshan and 99 men from students and general workers have been tested with Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-26) and Impact of Event Scale-Revised(IES-R). Results ① The alexithymia scores of prison male offenders were more higher except for the factor I(Prion: 18.62±3.61; general: 18.00±3.57)and factor III(prion: 14.38±3.06; general: 14.96±3.34). And there were significant differences in factor II(Prison : 22.26±3.96; general: 19.72±3.34), factor IV (prison : 22.38±4.20; general: 21.03 ±4.03)and the total score (prison : 77.65 ±7.22; general: 73.71±8.32)(P 0.05). There were significant differences in the evade dimension and the total score in impact of evens between the three different type prison male offenders. ③There were negative correlations between factor III and factor IV of alexithymia and every dimension of impact of events(r=-0.14~-0.22, P<0.05), there were positive correlations between factor I and factor II of alexithymia and every dimension of impact of events(r=0.14~0.43, P<0.05). Conclusion The degree of alexithymia in prison male offenders is higher than the general men. The violent male offenders are served more impact of events.The higher the degree of alexithymia of the prison male offenders, the more impaction of the event they served. Key words: Criminal psychology; Prison male offenders; Alexithymia; Impact of events