How Alexithymia Increases Mental Health Symptoms in Adolescence: Longitudinal Evidence for the Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation

Alexithymia is characterised by difficulties identifying and describing feelings, as well as a lack of focus on feelings. Alexithymia is a transdiagnostic risk factor for developing a wide array of psychopathologies, such as anxiety and depression, with a key hypothesised mechanism being the impairing impact of alexithymia on emotion regulation competency. However, no study has tested whether difficulties with emotion regulation mediate the link between alexithymia and psychopathological symptoms using longitudinal designs.

Citation:
Brett JD, Zarei M, Preece DA, Becerra R, Gross JJ, Mazidi M. How Alexithymia Increases Mental Health Symptoms in Adolescence: Longitudinal Evidence for the Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation. Affec Sci. 2025.

Keywords:
Alexithymia; psychopathology; emotion regulation; longitudinal design

Abstract:
Alexithymia is characterised by difficulties identifying and describing feelings, as well as a lack of focus on feelings. Alexithymia is a transdiagnostic risk factor for developing a wide array of psychopathologies, such as anxiety and depression, with a key hypothesised mechanism being the impairing impact of alexithymia on emotion regulation competency. However, no study has tested whether difficulties with emotion regulation mediate the link between alexithymia and psychopathological symptoms using longitudinal designs.