No association between alexithymia and emotion recognition or theory of mind in a sample of adolescents enhanced for autistic traits.

Publisher: Sage Publications In Association With The National Autistic Society Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 9713494 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1461-7005 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 13623613 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Autism Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: London : Sage Publications In Association With The National Autistic Society
Original Publication: London ; Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage Publications in association with the National Autistic Society, c1997-

Affective Symptoms*/psychology ; Theory of Mind* ; Emotions*; Humans ; Adolescent ; Female ; Male ; Autistic Disorder/psychology ; Case-Control Studies ; Child

Lay Abstract: Alexithymia is a sub-clinical condition characterised by difficulties identifying and describing one's own emotions, which is found in many, but not all autistic people. The alexithymia hypothesis suggests that certain aspects of socio-cognitive functioning typically attributed to autism, namely difficulties in emotion recognition, might be better explained by often co-occurring alexithymia. It is important to understand what is specific to autism and what is due to other co-occurring characteristics to develop appropriate support for autistic people. However, most research on this topic has been conducted in adults, which limits our knowledge about the relevance of this theory to younger autistic populations. This study tested whether difficulties in emotion recognition and theory of mind traditionally associated with autism might be better explained by alexithymia in a sample of adolescents with and without a diagnosis of autism. Results found that difficulties in emotion recognition and theory of mind were both associated with autistic traits, and this was not accounted for by individual differences in levels of alexithymia. This research suggests that more work is needed to understand the applicability of the alexithymia hypothesis in younger populations, but that at least in adolescents and when using parent-report measures, alexithymia may not account for emotion recognition or theory of mind difficulties associated with autistic traits.
Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: A.P. receives royalties from the SCQ. All other authors declare no conflict of interest.

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United Kingdom WT_ Wellcome Trust

Keywords: adolescence; alexithymia; autism; emotion recognition; theory of mind

Date Created: 20240119 Date Completed: 20240806 Latest Revision: 20241009

20241009

PMC11301953

10.1177/13623613231221928

38240268