Alexithymia and Autistic Traits as Contributing Factors to Empathy Difficulties in Preadolescent Children.
Lydia Gabriela Speyer, Ruth Harriet Brown, Lorna Camus and 2 others
PMID 33788077WHAT IT FOUND
In preadolescent children, difficulty identifying and describing one's own feelings (alexithymia) predicted lower empathy scores more strongly than autistic traits did.
This suggests that empathy challenges often attributed to autism may actually stem from co-occurring alexithymia, pointing to emotional awareness support rather than autism-specific social training.
Key findings
01Alexithymia was a significant predictor of empathy difficulties, whereas autistic traits were not once multiple comparisons were corrected for.
02For behavioural empathy tasks, parent-reported alexithymia significantly improved model fit, while autistic traits did not.
03For parent-reported empathy, both autistic traits and alexithymia were significant predictors, with autistic traits remaining strong even after adjusting for alexithymia.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample size was small (59 children) and recruited via convenience sampling, limiting generalisability. Only one behavioural empathy task was used, which may not capture all aspects of empathic processing. There was significant discrepancy between child and parent reports of alexithymia, suggesting that relying on a single informant may miss key predictive factors. The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot establish causal relationships or developmental trajectories.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that autistic traits do not impact empathy. The study found that autistic traits were strong predictors of parent-reported empathy, even after adjusting for alexithymia. The attenuation of autistic traits was only seen in combined indices and behavioural tasks, not across all empathy measures.