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Alexithymia, Resilience, and Depression in Functional Impairment Among Adolescents With Eating Disorders: A
Yavuz Meral1,2, Saliha Açıkgöz2,3, Alperen Bıkmazer1
1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Istanbul Medeniyet University, 34865 Istanbul, Türkiye.
Alpha Psychiatry
|March 6, 2026
Summary
Adolescents with eating disorders (EDs) exhibit significant functional impairment and internalizing symptoms. Difficulty identifying and describing emotions, particularly depression, contributes to these challenges in adolescents with EDs.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Clinical Psychology
- Adolescent Health
Background:
- Eating disorders (EDs) in adolescents are linked to emotional distress and functional limitations.
- Understanding the interplay of psychological factors is crucial for effective intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the associations between alexithymia, resilience, internalizing symptoms (anxiety, depression), and functional impairment in adolescents with EDs.
- To identify specific emotional processing difficulties contributing to impairment in this population.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional, case-control study involving 51 adolescents with EDs and 57 controls.
- Utilized self-report measures for alexithymia, resilience, and internalizing symptoms; parental reports for functional impairment.
Main Results:
- Adolescents with EDs demonstrated greater functional impairment, higher anxiety and depression, increased alexithymia, and lower resilience compared to controls.
- Difficulty describing feelings (DDF) was uniquely associated with ED group membership.
- Within the ED group, functional impairment correlated with depressive symptoms, anxiety, DDF, difficulty identifying feelings (DIF), and inversely with resilience; depressive symptoms mediated the DIF-functional impairment link.
Conclusions:
- Adolescents with EDs face extensive functional difficulties.
- Depressive mood, compounded by challenges in emotion identification, appears to significantly contribute to functional impairments in adolescents with EDs.
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