Sleep quality and child abuse: the mediating role of alexithymia

ABSTRACT Child abuse victims often experience sleep problems, but the possible underlying mediators between them are not well known. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between sleep quality and child abuse through the mediation role of alexithymia in a sample of 200 students of Tabriz University. The results show that child abuse experience and its components (emotional, physical, sexual abuse, and neglect) were significantly associated with low sleep quality and greater level of alexithymia. Findings of the structural equation model unveiled that child abuse experience and its components directly predicted sleep quality. Alexithymia was also a good mediator for the relationship between sleep quality and child abuse. This result suggests that alexithymia might be one mechanism linking sleep quality and child abuse.