Adverse Childhood Experiences: Relationship with Empathy and Alexithymia

Abstract

Several studies showed that adults who have experienced childhood adversity are more likely to develop alexithymia and low empathy. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the relationship between childhood adversity and alexithymia and empathy in adulthood and verify a predictive explanatory model of alexithymia. The sample comprised 92 adults who responded to the sociodemographic questionnaire, the Childhood History Questionnaire, the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, and the Alexithymia Scale of Toronto. Childhood adversity showed a positive relationship with alexithymia and a negative relationship with empathy. Predictive validity showed that marital status, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and empathic concern predicted higher alexithymia scores. These results show the impact of these childhood experiences on adult life, underlining the importance of developing intervention programs in this field.

Do Adverse Childhood Experiences Make Us More Utilitarian in Moral Dilemmas?

“… 35 , 36 Additionally, they commonly report higher levels of alexithymia and lower levels of empathic concern. 30 In fact, these characteristics would reduce sensitivity to moral norms. 7 , 29 Consequently, individuals with more ACEs may exhibit reduced sensitivity to norms, possibly due to emotional deficits resulting in diminished emotional responses to harmful thoughts.…”

“… 29 Moreover, ACEs are closely associated with alexithymia. 30 Therefore, we hypothesize that individuals in the high ACE group may exhibit significantly lower N parameters compared to those in the low and no ACE groups. However, there may be no differences among the three groups in terms of the C and I parameters.…”

Mother adversity and co-residence time impact mother–child similarity in genome-wide and gene-specific methylation profiles

“…Being a mother with neglectful care is typically linked to having suffered childhood maltreatment [ 6 ] and exposure to adverse events [ 7 ] in her own life. Often these experiences are followed by negative effects on mental and physical health throughout life [ 8 , 9 ] and emotional difficulties such as a lack of empathy and alexithymia [ 10 ]. Being a neglected child involves, in turn, experiencing stressful care [ 11 ], not being treated empathically, and carrying a cumulative risk of behavioral and mental problems [ 12 ].…”

The adverse childhood experiences—International questionnaire in clinical and at‐risk samples worldwide: A systematic review (part II)

“…In this vein, the literature suggests that ACEs are themselves social determinants of several health outcomes (Hughes et al, 2017; Scully et al, 2020), counting more than 200 systematic reviews on the topic registered in PROSPERO. Existing reviews mostly document connections with single physical (e.g., diabetes; Zhu et al, 2022) and mental health (e.g., substance misuse; Grummitt et al, 2022) outcomes or psychological constructs (e.g., empathy; Cerqueira & Almeida, 2023), or intervention outcomes such as adherence (Draxler & Ruppar, 2022). Given the higher distribution of at‐risk and clinical populations in low‐ and middle‐income countries (Lund et al, 2010; Slone & Mann, 2016), research on ACEs connections with a broad range of psychological and health outcomes in these populations would geographically cover these countries first.…”