Emotional Difficulties in Adolescence: Psychopathology and Family Interactions

Introduction: Several studies on developmental age have investigated aspects relating to emotional competence, and alexithymia in particular, showing that it is associated with behavioral problems in childhood and adolescence.

Some such research has focused on the relationship between emotional difficulties and family interactions assuming a link between the quality of family relationships and a child’s emotional competence.

Subjects and Methods: The aims of the present study were: 1) to compare a group of psychiatric adolescents with a group of “healthy” adolescents in terms of any alexithymia and its relationship with the former’s psychopathological issues; 2) to clarify the relationship, if any, between psychopathology, alexithymia and family interaction patterns in our sample of psychiatric adolescents. The experimental group consisted of 41 psychiatric adolescents and the control group of 41 students matched for gender and age. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) was used to identify any alexithymic traits, the Youth Self Report (YSR) 11-18 and the CBCL to detect any psycho-behavioral problems, and the Lausanne Trilogue Play (LTP) to analyze family interactions.

Results: There was a higher prevalence of alexithymia among the adolescents with mental health problems than in the control group, and a correlation between their scores for internalizing problems and alexithymia. In the experimental group, adolescents with internalizing problems, somatic complaints and attention difficulties belonged to families revealing high levels of parental conflict. As for alexithymia, adolescents’ difficulty identifying emotions correlated significantly with the same trait in their mothers. This feature also seemed to be associated with better family interactions.

Conclusion: Our study confirms the importance of family relationships in the development of emotional skills, and highlights how deficiencies in the development of emotional competence are strongly associated with psychopathologies in adolescence. In the light of these findings, it is advisable in clinical practice to provide psychotherapeutic interventions for teens and their parents.