Vaiouli Potheini, Panayiotou Georgia
Department of Psychology, Center for Applied Neuroscience, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus.
Front Neurosci. 2021 Oct 21;15:733775. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2021.733775. eCollection 2021.
Alexithymia is a multifaceted personality construct defined by marked difficulties in identifying and describing feelings and in externally oriented thinking. Given its intrinsic role in social-emotional processing, alexithymia is now recognized as a trans-diagnostic trait in a range of neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism. Research has pinpointed to the co-occurrence of autism with characteristics typical of alexithymic normative samples, such as social-communication difficulties and decreased emotion regulation abilities. Nonetheless, the role of individual facets of alexithymia in predicting challenges in social communication functioning is still understudied. In total, 275 young adults completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Autism Spectrum Quotient (short form), the Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire, and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale self-reported questionnaires for assessing alexithymic and autistic traits, social-communication abilities, and emotion regulation difficulties. We used regression models to establish cross-sectional associations between autism, alexithymia, and social-emotional difficulties. Also, we ran a parallel mediation analysis to determine whether the relationship between autistic traits and emotion regulations challenges are mediated by Alexithymia facets. Analysis showed a significant positive association between autistic traits and alexithymic traits and between autistic traits and emotion regulation difficulties while, as expected, autistic traits were negatively correlated with social skills. A significant relationship was found among the participants' levels of alexithymia and their interpersonal skills with two of three alexithymic subscales significantly contributing to the model. Similarly, a significant relationship was found among alexithymia subscales and emotion regulation difficulties with all three alexithymia subscales being statistically significant. Finally, analysis on two mediator models indicated a significant effect of autistic traits on social skills mediated by alexithymic traits as well as a significant indirect effect of autistic traits on emotion regulation difficulties mediated by alexithymic traits. The results of this study provide evidence of the influence of different alexithymic facets on the relationship between autistic traits and social-emotional challenges in young adults. Longitudinal studies may explore further alexithymia and its associations with social-emotional difficulties in autism as well as the potential implications of these findings in intervention and treatment programs.
述情障碍是一种多方面的人格结构，其特征是在识别和描述情感以及外向性思维方面存在显著困难。鉴于其在社会情感加工中的内在作用，述情障碍现在被认为是一系列神经发育障碍（包括自闭症）中的一种跨诊断特征。研究已经指出自闭症与述情障碍正常样本的典型特征同时出现，比如社交沟通困难和情绪调节能力下降。尽管如此，述情障碍的各个方面在预测社交沟通功能挑战方面的作用仍未得到充分研究。共有275名年轻人完成了多伦多述情障碍量表、自闭症谱系商数（简表）、人际能力问卷以及情绪调节困难量表等自我报告问卷，以评估述情障碍和自闭症特征、社交沟通能力以及情绪调节困难。我们使用回归模型来建立自闭症、述情障碍和社会情感困难之间的横断面关联。此外，我们进行了一项平行中介分析，以确定自闭症特征与情绪调节挑战之间的关系是否由述情障碍的各个方面介导。分析表明，自闭症特征与述情障碍特征之间以及自闭症特征与情绪调节困难之间存在显著的正相关，而正如预期的那样，自闭症特征与社交技能呈负相关。在参与者的述情障碍水平与其人际技能之间发现了显著关系，述情障碍的三个子量表中有两个对该模型有显著贡献。同样，在述情障碍子量表与情绪调节困难之间也发现了显著关系，述情障碍的所有三个子量表在统计学上均具有显著性。最后，对两个中介模型的分析表明，自闭症特征对社交技能有显著影响，由述情障碍特征介导，并且自闭症特征对情绪调节困难有显著的间接影响，也由述情障碍特征介导。这项研究的结果提供了证据，证明不同的述情障碍方面对年轻人自闭症特征与社会情感挑战之间的关系有影响。纵向研究可以进一步探索述情障碍及其与自闭症社会情感困难的关联，以及这些发现对干预和治疗项目的潜在影响。
