Exploring the links between childhood emotional abuse and empathy: The mediating roles of alexithymia and sensory processing sensitivity

Abstract

Background

Exposure to childhood emotional abuse amplifies the personality traits of alexithymia and sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) and impacts empathy.

Objective

This study investigated if alexithymia, SPS positive traits, and/or SPS negative traits mediate the relationship between childhood emotional abuse and both emotional contagion measured behaviourally and self-reported empathy.

Materials and methods

A sample of 190 university students (M_age = 19.92 years) completed self-report measures of empathy and a behavioural task measuring emotional contagion elicited by viewing affective films. Multiple parallel mediation analyses were run to determine if the personality variables mediated the links between abuse and empathy-related outcome measures.

Results

The relationship between childhood emotional abuse and each of the self-report empathy subscales was mediated by personality, although the strength and direction of the effects varied across the three trait clusters. In the behavioural task, aspects of SPS mediated the relationships between emotional abuse and the strength of the primary emotion felt during viewing of positive and negative films; and alexithymia mediated the relationship between emotional abuse and the number of discrete emotions felt during viewing of negative films.

Conclusions

The findings provide important insights into how childhood exposure to emotional abuse can impact personality development and, indirectly, the development of empathy. They also highlight the importance of considering the relative strength of specific traits associated with both alexithymia and SPS when trying to predict individual differences in empathy. The results may inform the development of individualized intervention programs targeting empathic deficits.