Ricerc@Sapienza

The association among alexithymia, somatic symptoms and clinical correlates has been
scantly investigated in children. The present study examined alexithymic features and
somatic symptomatology in schoolchildren with high and low levels of depression,
testing the role of depressive symptoms in mediating the associations between
alexithymia and somatic symptoms. Seven-hundred schoolchildren were involved in this
study and divided into two subgroups (8–10 years and 11–14 years) in order to test
differences according to the age. Participants completed the Children’s Somatization
Inventory-24 for the assessment of somatic symptoms, the Alexithymia Questionnaire
for Children to evaluate alexithymic features and the Children’s Depression Inventory-2
to investigate depressive symptoms. Results showed that children with high levels of
depression reported both higher alexithymia and somatic symptoms levels. Despite a
direct effect of alexithymia on somatic symptoms, the mediation analyses also highlighted
an indirect effect of alexythimia on somatic symptoms through depressive symptoms.
Findings suggested that a depressive symptomatology may clarify why schoolchildren
with high alexithymia scores tend to report higher levels of health problems. Results also
support the possibility that depressive symptoms may contribute to the development of
somatic symptomatology among schoolchildren in the presence of high levels of
alexithymia.