The mediating role of social connectedness in the effect of positive personality, alexithymia and emotional granularity on life satisfaction: Analysis based on a structural equation model

This study explored the predictive effect of positive personality, positive emotional granularity and alexithymia on individual life satisfaction among 318 Chinese undergraduate students. Online questionnaires were used to assess positive personality, alexithymia, social connectedness and life satisfaction. Participants were also asked to view a series of standardized film clips and rate them on a list of nonprimary emotions to compute their emotional granularity. The results indicated that positive personality and alexithymia could predict an individual's life satisfaction directly or indirectly through social connectedness. Positive emotional granularity could predict alexithymia. However, positive emotional granularity could not predict life satisfaction directly, but it could predict life satisfaction through the path of alexithymia-social connectedness. These results provide implications for enhancing the well-being of Chinese college students by cultivating their positive psychological qualities and strengthening their social bonding.