AUTHOR=Elkholy Hussien , Elhabiby Mahmoud , Ibrahim Islam 

TITLE=Rates of Alexithymia and Its Association With Smartphone Addiction Among a Sample of University Students in Egypt

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00304

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00304

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>Alexithymia is characterized by difficulties in describing feelings. Many studies have shown that there is a relation between alexithymia and different types of addictions. Nowadays, smartphone addiction is proposed to be a global problem. The current study focuses on the rates of alexithymia and its association with smartphone addiction in an Egyptian university.</p></sec><sec><title>Materials and Methods</title><p>This is a cross-sectional study that was conducted in Ain Shams University. A sample of 200 university students was surveyed using Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) and Smartphone Addiction Scale<bold><italic>–</italic></bold>Short Version (SAS-SV).</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>The results showed that 44 students (22%) had alexithymia. It was also found that around one third of the sample (N=65, 32.5%) met the criteria of smartphone addiction. There was a strong association between alexithymia and smartphone addiction (OR=4.33, 95% CI 2.15–8.74, p= &lt; 0.001).</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>This study supports existing literature indicating the strong association between alexithymia and smartphone addiction.</p></sec>