Abstract
Symptoms of internalizing disorders such as depression and anxiety increase in adolescence, especially in females. However, gender differences in depression and anxiety symptoms emerge only after puberty onset. Levels of alexithymia, characterized by difficulties identifying and describing one’s emotions, are elevated in depression and anxiety, and fluctuate across adolescence in a gender-specific manner. This study investigated changes in alexithymia across adolescence, and explored the potential role of alexithymia in the development of depression and anxiety, separately for females and males. Accordingly, 140 adolescents aged 11 to 21 years (77 female) completed self-report measures of alexithymia, depression and anxiety, and pubertal development. For females alone, pubertal maturation was associated with alexithymic traits (specifically difficulties identifying and describing feelings), as well as symptoms of depression and anxiety. After accounting for alexithymia, the relationship between puberty and depression and anxiety was absent or reduced in females. Thus, alexithymic traits may have differential consequences for males and females, and possibly contribute towards increased depression and anxiety symptoms in females during adolescence. We propose that developmental changes in alexithymia should be considered when studying the onset and development of internalizing psychological disorders during adolescence.
Highlights
Adolescence is a developmental period associated with considerable physical, social, and psychological change [1,2,3]
Previous studies show greater increases in symptoms of depression in females compared to males, which is consistent with our finding that symptoms of depression significantly increase with pubertal development in females only
We aimed to investigate the development of the separate subscales of alexithymia across adolescence, and to explore the potential role of alexithymia in the development of symptoms of depression and anxiety, separately for males and females
Summary
Adolescence is a developmental period associated with considerable physical, social, and psychological change [1,2,3]. It is the period within which a number of psychiatric conditions, including depression and anxiety, are most likely to have their onset [4,5]. These observations have prompted the suggestion that the changes experienced in adolescence (for example changes related to puberty) may confer vulnerability for the development of psychiatric conditions, rather than, or in addition to, chronological age [6,7]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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