(PS3-87) Examining Alexithymia as a Mediator of the Association Between Childhood Trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Clusters in Adulthood.

Abstract Text:

Background:
Childhood trauma, including physical and sexual abuse, neglect, and emotional maltreatment, significantly heightens the risk of developing PTSD (Kessler et al., 2013; Widom, 1999). Research suggests that the severity of childhood trauma and external factors such as social support and bullying influence PTSD outcomes, while internal factors like emotion regulation and self-kindness play critical roles in mediating this relationship (Boughner et al., 2016; Murphy et al., 2014). Alexithymia, the inability to recognize or express emotions, is increasingly recognized as a key mediator between childhood trauma and PTSD, with studies linking emotion dysregulation to both internalizing and externalizing behaviors in trauma survivors (Ditzer et al., 2023; Hamel et al., 2024). This study aimed to explore the role of alexithymia as a mediator between childhood trauma and PTSD, hypothesizing that alexithymia significantly mediates the relationship between various forms of childhood trauma and PTSD outcomes, offering new avenues for trauma interventions.

Methods:
As part of a larger randomized clinical trial (Taft et al., 2016), data were collected from 135 male veterans. Participants were recruited from two major metropolitan areas in the Northeast. The sample had a mean age of 37.97 years (SD = 13.11), with 18.52% identifying as nonwhite. Although trauma exposure was not a requirement for study inclusion, all participants reported at least one traumatic event in their lifetime, with over 65% reporting exposure to military combat. We examined the relationship between participant’s child maltreatment exposure, alexithymia, and PTSD symptom severity using the following self-report measures: Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) for assessing veterans’ experiences of child maltreatment; Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) for evaluating veterans’ alexithymia; and the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL) for evaluating veterans’ PTSD symptoms.

Results:
Mediation analyses indicated that childhood sexual abuse and emotional neglect were indirectly positively associated with PTSD symptom severity through alexithymia for clusters B, C, and D of the PCL. There were no significant direct or indirect effects of childhood emotional abuse, physical abuse, or physical neglect.

Conclusion:
This study examined the mediating role of alexithymia in the relationship between childhood trauma and PTSD symptom severity, identifying emotional neglect and sexual abuse as key contributors. Future research is needed to clarify inconsistencies in how childhood trauma influences alexithymia and PTSD, as well as to explore these relationships in more diverse populations. The findings underscore the importance of addressing emotional processing deficits in PTSD treatment, particularly for individuals with specific trauma histories. These data have significant implications for developing targeted interventions that mitigate the long-term psychological impact of childhood trauma.