Self-esteem and alexithymia

236 college students completed Coopersmith's Self-esteem Inventory and Taylor's 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale. As predicted, the total scores on self-esteem and alexithymia were significantly negatively correlated-.42. Two factors of the subjects' orientations of alexithymia, difficulty recognizing and verbalizing feelings and difficulty describing feelings, explained 19% of the variance associated with self-esteem. These results suggest a negative association between difficulty in expressing emotions and college student's self-rated self-esteem.