Alexithymia and Empathy in Parent-Youth Dyads: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Model Analysis

Abstract

Parent–child interaction plays a key role in the development and maintenance of individual social emotional ability. Although studies have found that parents' alexithymia affects their offspring's social–emotional abilities, it is unclear how parents' and children's alexithymia affect each other and their empathic abilities. This study examined the relationship between college students' and their parents' alexithymia and empathy, focusing on both actor effects (individual-level associations) and partner effects (dyadic-level associations). A total of 1058 parent-youth dyads from a single college participated in the study, completing self-report measures of alexithymia and empathy. Using an actor-partner interdependence model analysis, the results revealed significant actor effects of alexithymia on cognitive empathy across all parent-youth dyads, though no such effects were found for affective empathy. Additionally, significant partner effects were observed, with sons' alexithymia linked to their fathers' cognitive empathy and mothers' affective empathy. These findings emphasize the complex dynamics of social-affective abilities within parent-youth relationships among college students and provide important implications for future research, intervention, and prevention efforts.