Children’s Alexithymia Measure (CAM): A New Instrument for Screening Difficulties with Emotional Expression

Way, Ineke; Applegate, Brooks; Cai, Xiaofan; Franck, Leslie Kimball; Black-Pond, Connie; Yelsma, Paul; Roberts, Essence; Hyter, Yvette D.; Muliett, Mary

doi:10.1080/19361521.2010.523778

Cited by 40 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(42 reference statements)

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“…These considerations may help to explain the previously reported relationship between alexithymia and emotion regulation [58]. Not being consciously aware of one’s emotions as they arise, actively suppressing one’s emotions or refusing to acknowledge that one is experiencing negative emotions would inhibit one’s ability to regulate emotions as they increase in intensity—shedding light on the seeming paradox by which alexithymic individuals are prone to displaying minimal nonverbal emotional expression most of the time but are also prone to intense emotional outbursts [4, 27, 46]. As emotion regulation issues—and ensuing emotional outbursts—are common in ASD [59–61], future examinations of the “alexithymia hypothesis” may find that alexithymia is a major contributor to emotion regulation difficulties in people with ASD.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alexithymia was assessed using the Children’s Alexithymia Measure (CAM), a parent-report measure designed to assess early childhood indicators of alexithymic tendencies [46]. The CAM consists of 14 items scored on a scale from 0 to 3.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the original validation study, the CAM’s 14 items were selected from a preliminary pool of 275, narrowed down by expert opinions of clinicians, and then again using factor analysis. A total of 224 parents of children who had experienced emotional trauma participated in that study [46]. To date, only one previous study [47] has used the CAM for research within the ASD population.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Alexithymia, but not autism spectrum disorder, may be related to the production of emotional facial expressions

2016

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BackgroundA prominent diagnostic criterion of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) relates to the abnormal or diminished use of facial expressions. Yet little is known about the mechanisms that contribute to this feature of ASD.MethodsWe showed children with and without ASD emotionally charged video clips in order to parse out individual differences in spontaneous production of facial expressions using automated facial expression analysis software.ResultsUsing hierarchical multiple regression, we sought to determine whether alexithymia (characterized by difficulties interpreting one’s own feeling states) contributes to diminished facial expression production. Across groups, alexithymic traits—but not ASD traits, IQ, or sex—were associated with quantity of facial expression production.ConclusionsThese results accord with a growing body of research suggesting that many emotion processing abnormalities observed in ASD may be explained by co-occurring alexithymia. Developmental and clinical considerations are discussed, and it is argued that alexithymia is an important but too often ignored trait associated with ASD that may have implications for subtyping individuals on the autism spectrum.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Alexithymia, but not autism spectrum disorder, may be related to the production of emotional facial expressions

2016

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“…It is comprised of 14‐items measured on a 4‐point Likert scale (almost never, sometimes, often, and almost always). The CAM‐PR has shown strong internal reliability, with an alpha coefficient of 0.92 [Way et al, ]. Higher scores indicate more symptoms of Alexithymia.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this study, we set out to examine for the first time how alexithymia might manifest in children with ASD. We utilize both self‐ and parent‐report measures of alexithymia that have been previously developed and utilized outside of ASD populations [Rieffe, Oosterveld, & Terwogt, ; Way et al, ]. Much like the literature in adults, we predicted that elevations would be apparent.…”

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confidence: 99%

Alexithymia in children with and without autism spectrum disorders

2015

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Alexithymia refers to pronounced difficulty in identifying and describing one's own emotions and is associated with an externally oriented focus of thinking. Alexithymia is known to be much more common in adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) compared with the typically developing (TD) adult population. However, we know very little about alexithymia in young children with ASD and advancing our understanding of this topic may be of critical clinical and translational importance. Here, we present the first study to examine alexithymia in children with ASD. We find that alexithymia is substantially elevated in ASD on both self- and parent-report measures. Despite both measures being sensitive to on-average group differentiation, we find no evidence of correlation between such measures, indicating that children and their parents may be using different sources of information. Parent-rated alexithymia is also associated with increasing levels of autistic traits. Discrepancy between self and other alexithymia ratings are also associated with autistic traits, but only in ASD. These results underscore the idea that assessing alexithymia in ASD at younger ages may help identify important subgroups that have particular difficulties in the domain of emotion processing. Autism Res 2016, 9: 773-780. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Alexithymia is related to poor social competence in autistic and nonautistic children

2021

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Alexithymia is characterized by difficulties identifying and describing one's own emotions and the emotions of others. These challenges with understanding emotions in people with alexithymia may give rise to difficulties with social interactions. Given that alexithymia frequently co‐occurs with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and that both populations have difficulties with social interactions, it is of interest to determine whether alexithymia can help to parse some of the heterogeneity in social competence in autistic and nonautistic individuals. The caregivers of 241 children (6–14 years old), including 120 autistic, and 121 nonautistic, rated their child's social competence using the Multidimensional Social Competence Scale (MSCS), autism traits using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), and alexithymia traits using the Children's Alexithymia Measure (CAM). Regression analyses indicated that age, IQ, sex, AQ, and CAM scores accounted for 40.2% of the variance in autistic children's, and 68.2% of the variance in nonautistic children's, parent‐reported social competence. Importantly, after controlling for age, IQ, sex, and AQ scores, CAM scores alone accounted for an additional 16.2% of the variance in autistic children's, and 17.4% of the variance in nonautistic children's social competence. These results indicate that higher alexithymia traits predict lower levels of social competence, suggesting that increased difficulty in identifying and describing one's own emotions and the emotions of others is associated with poorer social competence. Furthermore, CAM scores were found to partially mediate the relationship between autistic traits and social competence, suggesting that comorbid alexithymia traits may be partially responsible for poor social competence in individuals with high autistic traits. This research contributes to the understanding of the factors associated with the development of social competence and highlights alexithymia as a potential target for identification and intervention to improve social competence. Lay Summary Alexithymia is a condition where people find it hard to think and talk about their (and others') feelings. About 50% of autistic people have alexithymia. This might be why they have social and emotional difficulties. Parents answered questions about alexithymia and social difficulties their children have. Children with more alexithymia problems had poorer social skills. Thus, alexithymia may be related to social problems faced by autistic and nonautistic children.

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Children’s Alexithymia Measure (CAM): A New Instrument for Screening Difficulties with Emotional Expression

Cited by 40 publications

References 46 publications

Alexithymia, but not autism spectrum disorder, may be related to the production of emotional facial expressions

Alexithymia, but not autism spectrum disorder, may be related to the production of emotional facial expressions

Alexithymia in children with and without autism spectrum disorders

Alexithymia is related to poor social competence in autistic and nonautistic children

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