Primenjena psihologija

Vol. 15, No4., pp.527-548, 2022

Research Article

The Mediation Role of Trait Mindfulness in the

Relationship between Alexithymia and

Alcohol Consumption

Ivana Marcinko 

1 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of J. J. Strossmayer in Osijek, Croatia

ABSTRACT

Even though the relationship between alexithymia and alcohol consumption has

been long established, little is known about the factors which may explain this

association. The purpose of this study was to investigate trait mindfulness as the

mediator of the association between alexithymia and alcohol use. The study was

conducted online. A convenient sample was used in the study which consisted of

629 adult participants (243 males). Alexithymia, mindfulness, and, alcohol

consumption were assessed with questionnaires. The results were analyzed with

Proces macro. The results revealed a full mediation between alexithymia, trait

mindfulness and, alcohol consumption. It was shown that high alexithymia via high

trait mindfulness contributes to greater levels of alcohol use. The present findings

are discussed in the light of mindfulness as a mechanism which guide adaptable and

unadaptable tendencies which therefore, can control the consequences alexithymia

has on alcohol use.

Keywords

: alexithymia, mindfulness, alcohol consumption

UDC: 159.942:178

DOI: 10.19090/pp.v15i4.2418

Received: 30.06.2022.

Revised: 23.11.2022.

Accepted: 28.11.2022..

This is an open access article distributed

under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution

License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and

reproduction in any medium, provided the original author

and source are credited.

 Corresponding author email: filipa.cavar@pilar.hr

Ivana Marcinko

PP (2022) 15(4), 527-548

528

Introduction

Alcohol consumption represents one of the leading health problems. It is

accountable for 7.10% of the diseases among males and 2.20% among females

(World Health Organisation, 2022). The etiology of alcohol dependence is

complex, emphasizing the interaction between biological, psychological, and

sociological factors. Among biological factors genes, reward system, and

changes in dopamine levels are commonly mentioned (Carvalho et al., 2019;

Edenberg & Foroud, 2013; Koob &Volkow, 2016). Socioeconomic status,

childhood trauma, or parents abusing alcohol are some of the environmental

influences contributing to drinking (Haugland et al., 2021; Sudhinaraset et al.,

2016; Zdankiewicz-Scigala & Scigala, 2018) while psychological factors include

various personality traits such as high novelty seeking, impulsivity or trait

mindfulness (Foulds et al., 2017; Nicola et al., 2014; Sala et al., 2019). Another

personality trait most commonly mentioned in the context of alcohol

consumption is alexithymia.

Alexithymia is described as the inability to identify, describe and

communicate feelings as well as a difficulty in the differentiation of emotions

(Messina et al., 2014; Sifneos, 1973). In the past, alexithymia has been commonly

seen as a stable trait with a continuous distribution (Keefeer et al. 2019) while

recent studies suggest it's levels can change during psychosocial interventions

(Cameron et al., 2014). This difficulty in the differentiation of emotions, so-called

granularity, is particularly pronounced in the range of negative emotions (Aaron

et al., 2018). A person with low emotion granularity will define their own state as

„not good“ or "bad" while a person with high emotion granularity the same

emotional state will label as „anxious“ or „irritated“. Moreover, alexithymic also

presents difficulties in interpreting somatic sensations that accompany

emotions. Some argue alexithymia is a deficit of interoceptive accuracy (Bird et

al., 2010; Herbert et al., 2011) and is thought to be crucial for the correct

identification of emotional states (Barrett, 2006; Herbert & Pollatos, 2012).

The relationship between alcohol consumption and alexithymia is widely

confirmed. The prevalence of alexithymia among alcohol addicts ranges from

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529

45–67% (Thorberg et al., 2011) while in the general population the prevalence is

estimated to be around 10% (Hiirola et al., 2017). It has been shown that

emotional deficits contribute not only to the development but also maintenance

of alcohol abuse (Kopera et al., 2015). Recently abstinent and recovering

alcoholics tend to have problems with facial expression recognition, especially

with regards to negative emotions, and a tendency to overestimate the intensity

of emotions (Philippot et al., 2006; Townshed & Duka, 2003). It has also been

shown that alexithymic alcoholics experience more negative affect in

comparison to non-alexithymic alcoholics, while no difference between these

two groups was found regarding positive affect (Cox et al., 1998). Since

alexithymic alcoholics have greater problems with negative emotions, it's been

argued that this tendency is caused by the discomfort they tend to experience

in social situations (Uzun et al., 2003). It is supposed that alexithymic

susceptibility toward alcohol in social situations is aimed to reduce stress and

improve their interpersonal interactions (Kauhanen et al 1992).

Literature attempts to explain the linked relationship between

alexithymia and alcohol. According to some, the association between

alexithymia and problematic drinking can be explained by negative affect but

studies which controlled the effects of negative affect in the analyses still

confirmed the relationship between these variables (de Timary et al., 2008).

Others explain the link between alexithymia and alcohol with parental bonding

and attachment style (Lyvers et al., 2019) or even with impulsivity (Herman et al.,

2020). Conversely, no attempts have been made to explain this relationship with

trait mindfulness considering there is a plethora of evidence on the association

between alcohol consumption and mindfulness (e.g., Karyadi & Cyders, 2015; Sala

et al., 2019) as well as alexithymia and mindfulness (e.g., Aaron et al., 2020;

Norman et al., 2019). With regard to the alexithymia and mindfulness link, it was

shown that this association is inverted. Different components of mindfulness

negatively relate to alexithymia (Teixeira & Pereira, 2015). Also, mindfulness

training contributes to increased emotional granularity (Van der Gucht et al.,

2018) and improved interoceptive accuracy which results in decreased

alexithymia over time (Edwards et al, 2018).

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Trait mindfulness is defined as the ability to be aware and focused on

present experiences in a nonjudgemental manner (Brown & Ryan, 2003).

Distance from the experience, which a person creates by implementing

mindfulness, allows one to observe the ever-changing nature of emotions and

sensations accepting them as they are, not acting upon them. As an outcome,

this nonjudgemental and non-reactive stance allows a person to break a cycle of

unhealthy behaviors and initiate positive change (Ryan & Deci, 2000). According

to studies, trait mindfulness is negatively associated with stress, neuroticism,

anxiety trait, and state and depression while positively with positive affect,

vitality, life satisfaction, and satisfaction of basic psychological needs (Brown &

Ryan, 2003; de Sousa et al., 2021). Also, even though mindfulness was for a long

time considered to have dispositional quality, recent studies demonstrate it can

be developed over time with regular mindfulness meditation practice (Kiken et

al., 2015).

Mindfulness has also been negatively related to addictive behaviors

(Karyadi et al., 2014) by redirecting attention from maladaptive cognitions, such

as cravings or ruminations, to a broader context making room for the positive

assessment of the situation (Garland et al., 2015) which then initiates change for

the better. With respect to alcohol consumption, mindfulness is invertedly

related to alcohol abuse in student and clinical populations (Bowen & Enkema,

2014; Karyadi & Cyders, 2015). Specific facets of mindfulness, awareness and

nonjudgmental acceptance, seem to have a particularly important role in shaping

positive outcomes when alcohol use is concerned (Short et al., 2016; Stanley et

al., 2019). Practicing awareness and acceptance makes a person embrace

negative emotions which weakens mood-regulatory drinking motives (Roos et

al., 2015) and prevents alcohol abuse. In general, the relationship between trait

mindfulness and alcohol use is stronger for psychiatric than non-psychiatric

populations due to the inability of the psychiatric population to distance

themselves from negative thoughts, treating them non-judgementally (Sala et

al., 2019).

On the other hand, there are also studies which have demonstrated that

the effects of mindfulness on health-related behaviors may not always be

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531

positive. Farias et al. (2020) found that adverse effect rates for mindfulness range

between 4 and 33%. It is suggested that the increased awareness, which reflects

the presence of high mindfulness, prompts the presence of heightened anxiety

or full-blown panic attacks while practicing increased psychological distance

from the experience may initiate affective blunting and dissociation (Britton,

2019). With respect to alcohol consumption, research suggests acting with

awareness decreases alcohol consumption while nonjudgement increases it.

(Carter, 2015). Also, mindful curiosity is linked to alcohol misuse which is due to

fewer inhibitions associated with high levels of curiosity (Carter, 2015). According

to some authors, Mindfulness forms an inverted U-shape relationship with other

psychological constructs (Britton, 2019) explaining why too much of a good

thing, in this case, mindfulness, can turn bad. It is commonly found that the

negative effects of mindfulness are the most pronounced among those actively

participating in intense mindfulness sessions. For example, Reangsing et al (2022)

demonstrated that a greater number of mindfulness sessions in a week, rather

than a few, resulted in greater depression among emerging adults. In the same

fashion, Saltsman et al (2021) found that high mindfulness activates

cardiovascular response typical of stress-relates states due to greater attention

and cognitive processing given to this particular stressor in an attempt to

overcome it.

Presently, not many attempts have been made to uncover the pathway

through which alexithymia affects alcohol consumption. Since no one has tried

to look into trait mindfulness within that role, especially if the mixed findings

about its effects on alcohol consumption are taken into account, the aim of this

study is to investigate whether trait mindfulness mediates the association

between alexithymia and alcohol use. Based on the majority of earlier studies

which associate mindfulness with health-related behaviors, it is expected that

trait mindfulness is a mediator of the relationship between alexithymia and

alcohol use. It is predicted that high alexithymia through low mindfulness

contributes to high alcohol consumption.

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532

Methods

Participants

The convenience sample was used. In total 639 participants took part in

the study of which 10 were not yet 18 years of age so their data were omitted

from the further analyses. Therefore, the results of 629 adult participants (243

males, 383 females, and 3 choosing „other“) entered the final analyses. The age

range was 18 to 80 with the average age being 31.43 (

= 13.31). The age

distribution of the current sample according to developmental stages suggested

by Lally and Valentine-French (2019) was as follows: 51% of participants were in

the emerging adulthood stage (18-25-year-olds), 22% were in the early

adulthood stage (26-40-year-olds), 25% was in the middle adulthood stage (41-

65-year-olds) and 2% belong to late adulthood stage (65 onwards). The sample

consisted of 22 participants who had finished elementary school, 370 with

finished secondary school, 93 with high school qualifications, and 144 who had a

university degree and above. Socioeconomically, 7 participants were considered

as having low status, 27 reported below-average status, 470 considered to be in

the average range, 104 to be above average while 21 participants reported high

socioeconomic status. Of all participants, 57 (9.10%) reported having some kind

of mental health condition.

Measures

The sociodemographic questionnaire was used to collect data on age,

gender, socioeconomic status, education, and mental health status of

participants. The socioeconomic status was assessed by asking the respondents

to choose the answer from the 5-point scale (1-low socioeconomic level to 5

high socioeconomic level) which best indicated their socioeconomic level.

Participants' education is assessed by asking them to indicate their level of

education by choosing one of the answers from a 4-point scale (1 -

elementary

school

to 4 -

high education

). Mental health status was measured by asking

participants if they suffer from any mental health illness which they indicated by

choosing between Yes/No option. The information on parents' educational

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533

background and problematic consumption of alcohol was collected too.

Education level was assessed for each parent choosing answers from a 4-point

scale (1-elementary school to 4-high school diplomas). Parents' problematic

alcohol consumption was measured by asking participants to indicate if any

parent has/or had problematic alcohol use which they answered by choosing

between Yes/No options. If the Yes option was chosen, then they had to indicate

which parent has/had such difficulties.

Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-26; Bagby et al., 1986)

Alexithymia was measured with Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-26;

Bagby et al., 1986). This scale consisted of 26 items grouped into four subscales:

a) difficulty to identify and distinguish between feelings and bodily sensations;

b) difficulty to describe feelings; c) reduced daydreaming; and d) externally

oriented thinking. The answers are given on a 5-point Likert scale (1 -

strongly

disagree

, 5 -

strongly agree

). Results are calculated by adding together all the

answers which a participant chose. The higher the results, the more profound

alexithymic tendencies. The scale was already used in research on Croatian

samples. This instrument was translated and validated by Kocijan Lovko, Gelo,

and Karlovic (2015). The internal reliability of the scale in that study was .71. The

reliability of the scale on the sample of this study is α= .73.

Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS; Brown & Ryan, 2003)

Trait mindfulness was assessed with the Mindful Attention Awareness

Scale (MAAS; Brown & Ryan, 2003). The scale assesses the capability to bring

attention and awareness to what is happening at a particular moment. It has a

total of 15 items on which participants are answering on a six-point scale (1 -

never

, 6 -

always

). The total score is calculated by summing all the answers and

dividing them by the number of questions. Higher scores indicate the presence

of higher dispositional mindfulness. This scale was translated and validated on a

Croatian sample by Kalebic Jakupcevic (2014). The Cronbach alpha reported from

that study was .89. The measured internal consistency of scale on the sample of

this study is .88.

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The level of alcohol consumption was measured with the Alcohol

consumption scale from Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (Saunders et

al., 1993). This scale consists of three items on which respondents answer

choosing from a five-point scale (0 to 4). The composite score is obtained by

summing across the items whereas higher scores indicate greater consumption

of alcohol. This scale was already adapted and used on a Croatian language by

Spehar (2009). In that study the internal consistency of the scale was .78.

Cronbach alpha for this scale in the current study is .75.

Procedure

All procedures performed in the study were in accordance with the

ethical standards of the Institutional Research Board of the Department of

Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of J. J.

Strossmayer in Osijek, Croatia. The study was conducted online by advertising

the study on social networks. As part of general instructions, participants were

familiarized with aim of the study, that only those who are 18 years of age and

above can take part in the study as well as being familiarized with their rights.

The contacts of psychological services were available before and after the

instruments in case questions on alcohol consumption were too disturbing for

them. After general instruction, participants were asked to give their consent for

taking part in the study by choosing the option „I agree“.

Results

The descriptive statistics can be seen in Table 1.

Table 1

Descriptive data of the examined variables (

= 629)

Variable

Tmin

Tmax

Skewness

Kurtosis

Alexithymia

78.74

11.07

130

.30

1,11

Mindfulness

48.90

12.75

.09

-.26

Alcohol consumption

3.59

2.47

.72

.33

Note. Tmin

- theoretical minimum;

Tmax

- theoretical maximum.

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The descriptive statistics reveal that participants reported the presence

of moderate levels of alexithymia and mindfulness. The consumption of alcohol

was reported to be pretty low among participants in the study which is not

surprising considering that a non-clinical sample was used. The results also reveal

that all three variables are positively skewed but visual inspection of the results

(histogram) shows that the mindfulness result distribution was normal while the

other two were positively skewed. The greatest skewness was observed with

alcohol consumption, a result distribution which is common for measures of

clinical phenomena obtained from non-clinical populations. The only negative

kurtosis of data was obtained with mindfulness results while the other two

distributions were positive. The correlations between research variables can be

seen in Table 2.

Table 2

The correlations between examined variables (

= 629)

Variable

10.

11.

1. Age

2. Gender

-.06

3. Socioeconomic

status

-.00

4. Education

.29**

.16**

.17*

5. Education of

father

-.21**

.01

.14**

.15**

6. Education of

mother

-.36**

-.02

.10*

.05

.57**

7. Mental health

-.01

.02

-.01

.01

-.01

-.03

8. Alcohol

consumption of

parents

-.17**

.00

-.02

-.01

.12***

.14**

.07

9. Alexythimia

-.19**

.02

-.09*

-.19**

.01

.09*

-.10*

-.07

10. Mindfulness

-.17**

.06

-.12**

-.00

.04

-.13**

-.12**

.61**

11. Alcohol

consumption

-.20**

-.25**

.06

-.07

.13**

.16**

-.01

-.06

.17**

.19**

Note

. *p < .05, **p < .01; gender: 1 - male/ 2 – female.

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Age correlated with alexithymia, mindfulness, and alcohol consumption.

Older participants had lower levels of alexithymia, mindfulness, and alcohol

consumption. Gender was negatively associated with the consumption of

alcohol indicating male-to-female drinking prevalence. Both socioeconomic

status and education negatively correlated with alexithymia and mindfulness in

a way that participants with lower socioeconomic status and less education

experienced greater alexithymia and mindfulness. Mental health status

negatively correlated with alexithymia and mindfulness indicating that having

pre-existing mental health condition is associated with more profound

alexithymia and mindfulness.

Alexithymia is highly positively associated with mindfulness and weakly

positively with alcohol consumption. This indicates that the greater the

alexithymia, the higher mindfulness and consumption of alcohol. Finally,

mindfulness was weakly positively related to alcohol consumption indicating

that people with greater mindfulness had higher levels of alcohol intake.

In order to test the mediation role of mindfulness on the relationship

between alexithymia and alcohol consumption, SPSS Process Macro (Hayes,

2013) was used. The number of bootstrap samples for calculating confidence

intervals was 5000. The obtained results can be seen in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The mediation effects of mindfulness on the relationship between alexithymia

and alcohol consumption

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As Figure 1 shows full mediation occurred. That is, the indirect

contribution of alexithymia to alcohol intake entirely takes place through

mindfulness (

= .02,

BootstrapCI9

5 = .006 – .031). High alexithymia through high

mindfulness contributes to high alcohol use.

Bearing in mind that pre-existing mental health conditions could affect

tested relationships (Sala et al., 2019) the mediator role of trait mindfulness on

the association between alexithymia and alcohol consumption was also tested

whilst controlling the effects of mental health condition status. The results of

this analysis also confirm mindfulness as the full mediator of the relationship

between alexithymia and alcohol use (

= .02,

BootstrapCI95

= .006 – .030).

Discussion

Using available literature on the relationship between alexithymia and

alcohol consumption on one hand, and the positive effects of trait mindfulness

on human functioning on the other, the current work investigated if trait

mindfulness mediates the association between alexithymia and level of alcohol

consumption. The hypothesis that trait mindfulness mediates the relationship

between alexithymia and alcohol consumption was confirmed. Considering

numerous studies demonstrated the positive effects of mindfulness on health-

related behaviors, it was expected that low alexithymia would, through high

mindfulness, initiate low levels of alcohol consumption. Surprisingly, this

assumption was not confirmed. It was shown that high alexithymia via high

mindfulness contributes to higher alcohol consumption.

The findings highlight several important points. Firstly, heightened

attention and awareness of emotional experiences rising from high mindfulness,

create a context where those experiences are not observed from the distance

but rather submerge a person completely into them. Secondly, for these reasons

such experiences are most likely falsely negatively interpreted which most likely

perpetuates high anxiety that makes alexithymic's, who poorly deal with social

stressors (Uzun et al., 2003), resort to excessive drinking as means of coping with

the given circumstances. Therefore, high trait mindfulness amplifies the already

existing negative effects of alexithymia on alcohol consumption. Finally, these

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effects of high mindfulness may not be a problem for „healthy“ individuals but it

is an issue for the vulnerable, those who struggle with emotional experiences, or

those who are prone to negative interpretations of feelings as a result of already

existing mental conditions. The following information confirms these claims.

Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (Brown &Ryan, 2003), which was

used in this research, is comprised of items that are mainly oriented at measuring

awareness. This means that in the current study mindfulness was mainly

evaluated through this dimension. Now, even though high awareness has many

benefits (Brown & Ryan, 2003) for meditators who are working to develop this

quality, it is reported that heightened awareness also produces harmful

consequences. The negative consequences of practicing high awareness

reported by meditation practitioners are profound symptoms of anxiety,

sadness, and trauma-related memories (Cebolla et al., 2017; Lomas et al., 2015).

In addition, some authors argue that mindfulness, like some other

positive traits, is non-monotonic meaning it has its optimal level which initiates

positive change but above and below negative effects exist. Since it was shown

that greater levels of mindfulness contribute to the low intensity of emotions,

emotional numbing, and dissociation (Cebolla et al., 2017; Lindahl et al., 2017;

Taylor et al., 2011) it would not be surprising that for these reasons higher

mindfulness contributed to greater alcohol consumption. After all, higher

mindfulness has been shown to activate physiological responses typical of high-

stress states (Saltzman et al., 2021) and initiate the presence of depression

among those who practice mindfulness intensively (Reangsing et al., 2022).

Support for given claims is also drawn from research findings regarding

characteristics of alexithymia. It was shown that people with alexithymia have

susceptibility toward low granularity of negative emotions (Aaron et al., 2018)

that is, failing to make fine differentiation between different negative emotions.

For example, alexithymic confronted with a stressor will interpret their own

feelings as „negative“ rather than „irritated“ or „angry“. This feature of alexithymia,

on its own, may not represent a problem if it were not for the magnifying

properties of high mindfulness which accentuates the feeling of a generally

present negative mood. Thus, for an individual with such a constellation of

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539

personality traits, confrontation with stressors initiates a cycle of catastrophizing

thoughts and the usage of coping strategies, such as problematic alcohol use,

which should alleviate the generally present negative mood.

Further, the tested relationships are examined on a sample whose

majority consists of emerging adults. With this in mind, it is likely that the given

associations were established due to a large subsample of emerging adults

participating in this study. Because of limited personal resources whilst facing

transitioning from adolescence to adulthood these individuals face a greater

number of life stressors which makes them more prone to mental health

problems in comparison to individuals from other age groups (Arnett, 2000;

Marchica et al, 2019). So, all point to the conclusion that the negative effects of

high mindfulness may be more observable among those who are psychologically

vulnerable in comparison to those who are well-adapted.

Similarly, mindfulness shares some characteristics with other

psychological phenomena, such as introspection (Chambers et al, 2009) or

neuroticism-related analyses of bodily sensations, feelings, and experiences

which are then interpreted negatively. We can't be sure if this study's answers

on mindfulness measure truly reflect mindful tendencies or features of some

other phenomena which contributed to the presence of negative relationships

between variables.

The fact that the adverse effects of mindfulness on the tested

relationship are established on a random sample rather than a population with

pre-existing psychiatric conditions confirms naturally occurring individual

differences in mindfulness. In the past, the adverse effects of mindfulness were

mainly reported by those who already had a tendency toward negative

emotional experiences or who are in rigorous mindfulness training. Pauly et al.

(2022) reported that meditators who had a pre-existing inclination toward

negative thinking (i.e. poorer mental health) were the ones who reported those

negative experiences. However, the authors also demonstrated when the effects

of mental health status were controlled in the analysis, no association between

negative thinking and adverse mindfulness effects was found. Considering that

in this study the negative effects of mindfulness were evident even after

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540

controlling for the mental status of participants suggests that the unpleasant

effects of trait mindfulness are naturally occurring and are widespread in the

general population.

Overall, this study suggests that mindfulness sometimes may not be

bound by positive outcomes. According to the findings, it seems that the

unwanted effects of mindfulness may be expected among groups that are

susceptible to excessive alcohol consumption, as well as those who are having

difficulty to adequately deal with emotions (e.g. those with high trauma

exposure) or interpretations of internal experiences, for example, those who are

mental disadvantaged (e.g. those with body dysmorphic disorder) or those prone

to high-stress reactivity due to age-related limitations (e.g. emerging adults). For

this reason, trait mindfulness could be assessed as part of the standard

psychodiagnostic procedure in order to gain insight into the extent to which trait

mindfulness complicates the clinical picture of those with pre-existing clinical

diagnoses. Also, the findings remind us that mindfulness-fueled interventions

should be individually tailored where the intensity or frequency of mindfulness

practice should accommodate the patient characteristics in order to achieve

optimal results. For this reason, studies like this are needed to gain insight into

the all-around effects of trait mindfulness as well as to recognize individuals

which may be particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of this trait rather

than just promising quick positive change for those who are trying to initiate

their own development.

Some limitations need to be taken into consideration when interpreting

the results of this study. Taking into consideration an indirect mediation effect

confidence interval suggests a significant but weak indirect mediation effect

which suggests that such findings should attempt to be replicated once more.

Because of the cross-sectional nature of the study, no conclusions about

causality can be drawn. In order to control the effects of pre-existing mental

status on the results, mental health status was controlled in the analysis.

However, we can’t know if the results of participants with sub-clinical symptoms

of depression or anxiety affected the data. Future studies should control these

variables more rigorously. This study used the Mindfulness Attention Awareness

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Alexithymia, Mindfulness and Alcohol Use

541

Scale (Brown &Ryan, 2003) which may not have the best capture of the full

effects of mindfulness since it is primarily oriented toward measuring the

awareness facet. Maybe the use of an instrument which, besides awareness,

assesses other facts of mindfulness (e.g. Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire)

may yield different results. Some studies indicate that different facets of

mindfulness are related to different aspects of alcohol use behaviors (e.g.

Fernandez et al., 2010) so it would be useful to assess the indirect effects of

mindfulness facets on the tested relationship to gain a fuller understanding of

established effects. Furthermore, even though the negative effects of high

mindfulness were detected among those prone to greater alcohol consumption,

the findings can not be generalized to other substance use behaviors. Literature

suggests that trait mindfulness is more related to alcohol and tobacco use in

comparison to marijuana consumption (Robinson et al, 2008) so it would be

interesting to test the effects of trait mindfulness on the relationship between

alexithymia and other substance use behaviors to see if findings would be

replicated. Finally, the choice of an instrument with which alcohol use was

assessed may not be the best as it did not cover other alcohol-related behaviors

(e.g. duration of alcohol use, or alcohol-related symptoms) which may more

objectively reflect the problematic consumption of alcohol among participants.

Funding

The author received no specific funding for this work.

Conflict of interest

We have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the

author.

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542

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