Aim: Alexithymia as a disability in the processing of cognition and regulation of emotions is associated with a large number of mental and physical disorders. The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the alexithymia correlation with positive strategies of cognitive emotion regulation in prisoners.
Instrument and Methods: This descriptive correlation study was carried out in all prisons in the prisons of Darband City, Iran, in 2013. Using available sampling method, 100 individuals were selected as samples. Alexithymia and positive strategies of cognitive emotion regulation questionnaires were used for data collection. Data were analyzed in SPSS 18 software using Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression tests.
Findings: Total mean of alexithymia was 55.40±14.30 and positive strategy of cognitive emotion regulation was 63.46±8.86. Positive strategy of cognitive emotion had a significant positive correlation with the difficulty in identifying the emotions (r=0.27; p=0.01) and a significant negative correlation with objective thinking (r=-0.29; p=0.01). 29.0% of the variance related to the positive strategy of cognitive emotion regulation was determined by alexithymia components (r=7.316; p=0.001). 27.3% of the variance of the positive strategy of cognitive emotion regulation was predicted by the objective thinking (p=0.005; t=-2.888) and the difficulty in identifying the emotions, could not predict the positive strategy of cognitive emotion regulation (p=0.256).
Conclusion: There are correlations between positive strategies of cognitive emotion regulation and difficulty in identifying the emotions and objective thinking; and objective thinking can predict the use of positive strategies of cognitive emotion regulation in prisoners.