(PS4-A3) Longitudinal and Cross-sectional Investigations of Depressive Symptoms and Alexithymia in Children and Adolescents

Alexithymia is a personality trait characterized by difficulty identifying or describing one’s own emotional states. Alexithymia has also been posited as a risk factor for future development of internalizing psychopathology. However, most of the previous research has been conducted in adult clinical populations. Thus, we examined the relationship between depressive symptoms and alexithymia in a non-clinical sample of youth to determine how these associations change over time. We hypothesized that among generally healthy youth, alexithymia and depressive symptoms would be positively associated cross-sectionally at baseline. Longitudinally, we hypothesized that baseline scores of each measure would be positively associated with scores on the same questionnaire assessed 3 years later, and that the baseline values of each questionnaire would be positively associated with change in the other measure over the same 3-year period. At baseline and 3-year follow-up (3Y) visits, alexithymia was measured using the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children (AQC), and depressive symptoms were determined using the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI). Cross-sectional associations were examined using a generalized linear model (GLM). Two repeated-measures ANCOVAs tested for within-subject differences in baseline and 3Y scores. Two longitudinal GLMs were conducted with 3Y CDI scores as the dependent variable with baseline AQC scores as the predictor, and a model that reversed this order. Longitudinal GLMs were adjusted for baseline CDI or baseline AQC scores. All models were adjusted for sex, race/ethnicity, and age. 301 youth (12.63 ± 2.71y, 54.2% female, 47.2% non-Hispanic White), 8-17 years old at baseline, were studied. 88 youth (14.15 ± 1.96y, 44.3% female, 54.5% non-Hispanic White) provided AQC and CDI data at the 3Y visit. Baseline AQC was associated with baseline CDI scores (B=0.75, p< .001). Mean AQC (F=0.21, p=.65) and CDI (F= 0.71, p=.40) scores did not differ between baseline and 3Y. When adjusting for baseline CDI, baseline ACQ scores were not significantly associated with CDI scores at 3Y follow-up (F=0.74, p=.39). When adjusting for baseline AQC, baseline CDI scores were not significantly associated with AQC scores at 3Y (F=1.39, p=.24). Although depressive symptoms and alexithymia were cross-sectionally associated, we did not find support for our longitudinal hypotheses that baseline alexithymia would predict higher follow-up depressive symptoms, and vice versa. Alexithymia and depressive symptoms did not significantly change in our generally healthy sample during the 3Y period. Limited variance in the change of measures over time and the smaller sample size of youth who reported on AQC and CDI measures at 3Y (compared to baseline) visits may have reduced our ability to detect longitudinal associations between alexithymia and depressive symptoms. Though this study provides preliminary evidence that depressive symptoms and alexithymia remain stable in non-clinical youth, more research is needed to untangle the temporal relationships between depression and alexithymia in both clinical and non-clinical pediatric samples.