3.2. Successful vs. unsuccessful students
As in previous work on determinants of academic success (Parker et al., 2004), it is also of inter-
est to examine the differences between the successful and unsuccessful groups in more detail. Table
3 shows the mean TAS-20 scores for the successful and unsuccessful groups for the combined
sample and for males and females separately. A series of ANOVAs was performed with gender
and success group as factors. A significant main effect of gender was found for difficulty describing
feelings [F(1,199) = 4.07, p = 0.045]. There were significant main effects of success group for total
TAS score [F(1,199) = 14.05, p < 0.001], difficulty describing feelings [F(1,199) = 4.31, p = 0.039],
difficulty identifying feelings [F(1,199) = 6.59, p = 0.011] and externally oriented thinking

[F(1,199) = 17.28, p < 0.001]; as can be seen from Table 3, these results correspond to the unsuc-
cessful group having higher mean scores for total TAS-20 and for the TAS-20 sub-scales. There
were no significant gender-success group interactions. For the sub-set of participants who com-
pleted the PANAS, the successful (N = 37) and unsuccessful (N = 64) groups were not signifi-
cantly different on the positive or negative affect scales (p > .05).
3.3. Alexithymic vs. non-alexithymic students
A gender by alexithymia group (non-alexithymic vs. alexithymic) ANOVA with first-year GPA
as the dependent variable found that the main effect for gender and the interaction were not sig-
nificant. However, the non-alexithymic (M = 70.61, SD = 10.28) and alexithymic (M = 66.23,
Table 3
Means and standard deviations of TAS-20 scores by success group
Group N Total mean (SD) DIF mean (SD) DDF mean (SD) EOT mean (SD)
Total sample
Unsuccessful 98 47.68 (12.98) 15.14 (6.81) 12.93 (4.91) 19.61 (5.13)
Successful 105 39.52 (11.41) 12.54 (4.76) 10.92 (4.88) 16.06 (4.76)
Men
Unsuccessful 28 49.36 (11.52) 15.00 (6.30) 13.82 (4.62) 20.54 (4.50)
Successful 21 42.48 (12.72) 12.71 (4.99) 12.52 (5.70) 17.24 (4.81)
Female
Unsuccessful 70 47.01 (13.54) 15.20 (7.05) 12.57 (5.00) 19.24 (5.34)
Successful 84 38.79 (11.01) 12.50 (4.73) 10.52 (4.61) 15.76 (4.73)
Note: TAS-20; Toronto alexithymia scale total; DIF, difficulty identifying feelings; DDF, difficulty describing feelings;
EOT, externally oriented thinking.

SD = 15.06) groups differed significantly on GPA [F(1,585) = 5.04, p = .02]. Analyses also re-
vealed that the proportion of alexithymic and non-alexithymic individuals falling into the three
different academic success groups were significantly different [v2
= 6.50, df = 2, p = .04]. For the
non-alexithymic group, the proportions for unsuccessful, moderately successful, and successful
were 12.3%, 71.1%, and 16.6% respectively; for the alexithymic group the proportions were
15.5%, 77.9%, and 6.5% respectively. For the sub-set of participants who completed the PANAS,
the alexithymic (N = 48) and non-alexithymic (N = 332) groups were not significantly different on
the positive or negative affect scales (p > .05).
1264 J.D.A. Parker et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 38 (2005) 1257­1267