Emotion recognition and expression in young obese participants: preliminary study

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Pediatrics
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Alexithymia, characterized by difficulty identifying and describing emotions, is increasingly studied in relation to obesity.
• Understanding emotional processing in obese youth is crucial for developing targeted interventions.
• Previous research has explored links between alexithymia and obesity, but findings in adolescents require further clarification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate alexithymic characteristics in obese adolescents and preadolescents.
• To test the hypothesis that obese youth exhibit impaired emotion recognition and expression.
• To explore the relationship between obesity and emotional awareness in a pediatric population.

Main Methods:

• A comparative study design was employed with 30 obese and 30 normal-weight participants (adolescents and preadolescents).
• Participants identified emotions from facial stimuli (42 faces, 7 expressions).
• The Level of Emotional Awareness Scale, adapted for children, assessed emotion description abilities.

Main Results:

• Obese participants scored significantly lower on the Level of Emotional Awareness Scale compared to controls.
• No significant differences were found between obese and control groups in emotion recognition tasks.
• Findings suggest a potential difficulty in emotion expression among obese youth, but not in emotion recognition.

Conclusions:

• The study indicates a higher prevalence of alexithymic characteristics, specifically in emotion expression, among obese adolescents and preadolescents.
• The hypothesis of a general deficit in emotional experience processing in obese youth was not supported.
• Difficulties in verbalizing emotions may be a key feature differentiating obese youth with alexithymic traits.