Abstract
Parental bonding and emotional regulation, while important to explain difficulties that may arise in child development, have mainly been studied at an individual level. The present study aims to examine alexithymia and parental bonding in families of adolescents with psychiatric disorders through different generations. The sample included a total of 102 adolescent patients with psychiatric disorders and their parents. In order to take a family level approach, a Latent Class Analysis was used to identify the latent relationships among alexithymia (Toronto Alexithymia Scale), perceived parental bonding (Parental Bonding Instrument) and the presence of adolescent internalizing or externalizing psychiatric symptoms (Youth Self-Report). Families of internalizing and externalizing adolescents present different and specific patterns of emotional regulation and parenting. High levels of adolescent alexithymia, along with a neglectful parenting style perceived by the adolescent and the father as well, characterized the families of patients with internalizing symptoms. On the other hand, in the families with externalizing adolescents, it was mainly the mother to remember an affectionless control parental style. These results suggest the existence of an intergenerational transmission of specific parental bonding, which may influence the emotional regulation and therefore the manifestation of psychiatric symptoms.
Highlights
The family is one of the main living contexts that influence the development of adolescents: the answer offered by the environment, in particular within the parent–child relationship, challenged by and involved in the inner conflicts of the adolescent, plays a crucial role, in the child’s development (Jeammet, 2004, 2010)
Research on parenting styles and psychosocial well-being conducted on the general population showed that a parent–adolescent relationship characterized by high levels of care and warmth is associated with minor levels of internalizing and Intergenerational Transmission in Clinical Adolescents externalizing problems in the offspring; parental practices characterized by low care and high overprotection can make the offspring vulnerable to psychopathology (Rohner and Britner, 2002; Andersson and Eisemann, 2003; Avagianou and Zafiropoulou, 2008; Boricevic Maršanicet al., 2014; Freeze et al, 2014; Sarajlic Vukovicet al., 2015)
Among the deficits in emotion regulation, alexithymia is considered a processing disorder of affects that interferes with self-regulation processes and symbolization of emotions, characterized by a series of difficulties in: identifying, describing and interpreting subjective and others’ feelings; distinguishing emotional states from physiological perceptions; identifying the causes of one’s own emotions; using language to express feelings, which result in a tendency to replace words with actions (Taylor et al, 1997)
Summary
The family is one of the main living contexts that influence the development of adolescents: the answer offered by the environment, in particular within the parent–child relationship, challenged by and involved in the inner conflicts of the adolescent, plays a crucial role, in the child’s development (Jeammet, 2004, 2010). Current research suggests that alexithymia is one of the predisposing factors in many psychiatric disorders, either with internalizing or externalizing symptoms, during preadolescence, adolescence and adulthood too (Honkalampi et al, 2009; Manninen et al, 2011; Rieffe and De Rooij, 2012; Di Trani et al, 2013; Mannarini et al, 2016; Schimmenti et al, 2017) Internalizing disorders, such as anxiety, depression, somatic disorders and eating behavior problems, are a specific type of emotional and behavioral problems, probably based on an inappropriate or maladaptive control or regulation of emotional and cognitive states, which are sometimes difficult to identify through external observations (Merrell, 2008). Whereas in the externalizing disorders, behavioral problems are directed to the outside and negatively affecting people and the surrounding environment: examples can be disobedience, aggression, impulsive and violent behaviors, contesting, nonrespect of rules and property destruction (Manninen et al, 2011)
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